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COP'iD 8r P£M\ffSS/CA Of W-'BPOJ^S^.ffj^n. 



THE BAPTISTS 



AND 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



BY 



WILLIAM CATHCART, D.D., 



PHILADELPniA. 



PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR. 



/5*?.C^ ^' ' ■ 



PHi;^*5Cl5ELrHTA : 

S. Ji^. O-EIOI^G-E! & CO. 

1876. 






A portion of the following work was prepared at the request of 
"The Baptist Ministerial Union" of Pennsylvania, and delivered at 
their annual meeting in Meadville, October, 1875, when the follow- 
ing resolution was passed : 

"Besolved, That the thanks of the Union be tendered to Brother 
Cathcart for his able and instructive essay, and that a committee of 
three brethren be appointed to confer witli ihe author in regard to 
the publication and circulation of the essay." 

Upon the delivery of the same address before the Philadelphia 
Association at its annual meeting in October, 1875, the following 
resolution was unanimously carried : 

"Resolved, In view of the part which the Baptists of America took 
in the formation of our government, and especially in contending for 
religious liberty, that Brother Cathcart be requested to furnish a copy 
of his able and eloquent address for publication in the Minutes of 
the Association." 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlio year 1870, by 

WILLIAM CATHCART, D. D., 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



PREFACE 



Baptists have ever been the ardent friends 
of civil and reUgious liberty. Their history in 
the New World overflows with testimonies of 
this character. 

They have never regarded the military pro- 
fession with much favor, and, as a rule, have 
only resorted to arms in great emergencies when 
the worst evils threatened an entire people. So 
that we must not look for them among the 
principal commanders of the Revolution. 

The leading men of Massachusetts and Vir- 
ginia, the two great arms of the Revolution, 
were hostile to the Baptists, and had lent their 
aid to laws which grievously persecuted them 
right down to the commencement of the great 



4 PREFACE. 

struggle^ and it is not to be expected that they 
would place members of the " Sect everywhere 
spoken against" in prominent military posi- 
tions. 

These oppressive laws kept numbers from 
uniting with our people, who held their prin- 
ciples; and compelled many British Baptists to 
stay in the mother country who would other- 
wise have found a home in America. 

Notwithstanding these considerations our 
brethren acted a glorious part in the conflict, 
which secured our liberties, and which set the 
world an example which so many nations have 
already followed. 

This little work is not a history of all the 
efforts of our Baptist fathers to make the 
American Kevolution triumphant, but a sketch 
of persons and events precious to our great 
denomination and dear to patriots of every 
creed and clime. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction. 

'■s;Lri."s;;;»-.Kssr"":""'.''r.»" , 

TUSOBEDIENCE TO WICKED LAWS. , ,. , -i 

Lewis Craig, and Jarne ^^ ^'^\''^4^^ Counties 
They pveaeh .n i'^^^^^'^J^^^^^^^^Tso^V^ Antliony in 
prison-Aich.bald cary tne p Massachusetts men and 
^Z'n-a^/esSri-ThrSridge sei.ure-Oppression tn- ^^ 
creases towards the Eevolution 

■ Nu,nl,er of Baptists - i'-f-.'' ''^^ly-S^S^T-T Brith 

:;7n°:^"Grer^^r-I^^^^^^^ 1, 

;Sson-Bancroft-Ar„old-Aid ui tlie war 

The Baptists were amonq the eikst Eeligtous Com- 
munities TO EECOGKIZE THE CONTINENTAL CONGKESS AS 
A LEGITIMATE BODY. , , , . . • r^„a 

^. . r^ Til a Wnrren and Philadelphia Associations— 
^'jl?:sT-Wnu:m K7ffin-Jo.ni Bunya^-English Baptists ^^ 
^jf 1689_The Congress recognized 

The Baptists as a people were enthusiastic advocates 
OF THE Revolution. 

^-S-^Jr^irJl^B"^^^^^^^^^^^ 

WmiLs- Elder M'Clanahan - Charles Thompson -Dr. 

|rnSend^l-l^a%»^^^ 

Kl.«le I'land-Baptists in the army-Baptist influence n 
DeCarl^Philadelphia Association and Yorktown-Bap- ^ 
tists too patriotic 



b CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Baptists have received the highest commendations 

FOR their patriotism. 

Jefferson and the Buck Mountain Church — Jefferson and " The 
General Meeting of Virginia Baptists " — John Leland's cheese 
— His opinion of Jefferson — Howison compliments the Bap- 
tists — Washington's opinion of Baptist patriotism 64 

Few Tories can be found among the Baptists of the 
Kevolution. 

Three hundred and eleven Tories in Massachusetts — Thirty- 
two hundred in "Sabine's History" — Morgan Edwards — 
Christopher Sower — Boston Tories and General Howe — Judge 
Curwen 70 

It was difficult for Baptists in the Revolution to 
throw aav ay the protection of england. 

The Sovereign shields American Dissenters — First Baptist 
Church in Boston — Ashfield Baptists — William III. and the 
Charter of Massachusetts — Roger Williams and the Pequots . 73 

The Baptists were chiefly instrumental in rescuing 
Virginia from the Sceptre of Britain. 

The Leading men of Virginia were Lairds — Episcopalians with 
an English-born clergy — They clung to Charles I. — Required 
a fleet to make them recognize the Parliament — Recognized 
Charles II. before the English received him — Patrick Henry's 
resolutions in 1765 — His famous speech — Ingersoll of Con- 
necticut — English corn laws — Increase of Baptists — Number 
of Dissenters — Henry and the Baptists — The Baptists probably 
take Virginia from Britain 79 

The Baptists were influential in securing the adop- 
tion OF the Constitution of the United States. 

Virginia and Massachusetts nearly equally divided about it — 
Efforts of Dr. Manning in the latter — Of Dr. Stillraan — Oppo- 
sition of Patrick Henry in Virginia — Madison — Leland — J. 
S. Barbour 91 

Baptists were the chief instruments in completing 
the Constitution of the United States, the Charter 
OF Revolutionary liberty, by adding the amendment 

SECURING FULL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 

The amendment — It could not come from Massachusetts — John 
Adams and her Constitution — Benjamin Kent — Israel Pem- 
berton — Thomas Jefferson — Virginia and the amendment — 
Acts of Parliament repealed, — Tithe laws suspended — Re- 
pealed — Assessment defeated — Petition of a rustic poet — All ' 
persecuting laws repealed — Madison — Jefferson — The Bap- 
tists—Strength of the Baptists — Washington and the Baptists. 97 



THE BAPTISTS AND THE AMERICAN 
REVOLUTION. 



It is our profound conviction, and we should, on all occa- 
sions, manifest the same, that we should venture our all for 
the Protestant religion and the liberties of our country.— 
" Protest of the Messengers of one hundred Baptist churches 
in London, in 1QS9 .''—Ivimeifs History of the English Bap- 
tists, III., 335. 

The American Revolution secured a fund of 
glory sufficiently large to give an ample portion 
to every one who shared in its struggles and 
sacrifices. Men of nearly every Christian creed, 
and the author of " The Age of Reason," and 
" The Rights of Man," aided in obtaining for our 
country its best temporal blessing, and for the 
world the richest gift of a beneficent Providence. 
All Christian communities in the "Thirteen 
Colonies " labored with quickened zeal to secure 
our liberties, and they achieved unbounded 
success. 

Denominations, whose principles to-day ac- 



8 



THE BAPTISTS AND THE 



cord with universal liberty, are not responsible 
for the persecutions inflicted by their religious 
ancestors in Colonial times. Nor are modern 
Baptists entitled to any credit for the glorious 
doctrines and practices of their fathers in Kevo- 
lutionary days. But we naturally take a special 
interest in our sainted and heroic predecessors, 
whose sacred worth and patriotic deeds have 
justly earned for them a respectable share of 
the admiration of mankind. Moved by this 
consideration, we propose to examine 

The Eelations of the Baptists to the 
American Eevolution. 

When William Pitt stated, in the British 
House of Commons, May 30th, 1781, that " The 
American war was conceived in injustice, and 
nurtured in folly, and that it exhibited the 
highest moral turpitude and depravity, and that 
England had nothing but victories over men 
struggling in the holy cause of liberty, or defeats 
which filled the land with mourning for the loss 
of dear and valuable relations slain in a detested 
and impious quarrel," and when, six months 
later, in the same assembly, and two days after 



AxMERICAN REVOLUTION. 9 

(Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown had been 
(published in England, the eloquent Fox adopted 
the words of Chatham, uttered at the beginning 
of the Revolution, and said : " Thank God that 
America has resisted the claims of the mother 
country!'"^ and when Burke and others, in the 
same legislature, spoke words of kindred import, 
full of peril to themselves, they expressed the 
sentiments of the Dissenters of England, and 
especially of the Baptists. When Robert Hall, 
the future eloquent preacher, was a little boy, 
he heard the Rev. John Ryland, of Northampton, 
a man of commanding influence among the Bap- 
tists, say to his father : " If I were Washington 
I would summon all the American officers, they 
should form a circle around me, and I would 
address them, and we w^ould offer a libation in 
our own blood, and I would order one of them 
to bring a lancet and a punchbowl and we 
would bare our arms and be bled ; and when the 
bowl was full, w^hen we all had been bled, I 
would call on ever}^ man to consecrate himself 
to the work by dipping his sword into the bowl 

* History of England by Hume, Smollett and Farr, III., 
pp. 155, 162. 



10 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

and entering into a solemn covenant engagement 
by oath, one to another, and we would swear by 
Him that sits upon the throne and liveth for 
ever and ever, that we would never sheathe our 
swords while there was an English soldier in 
arms remaining in America.""^ 

Dr. Rippon, of London, in a letter to Presi- 
dent Manning, of Rhode Island College, written 
in 1784, says : " I believe all our Baptist minis- 
ters in town, except two, and most of our breth- 
ren in the country were on the side of the Ameri- 
cans in the late dispute. . . . We wept when 
the thirsty plains drank the blood of your de- 
parted heroes, and the shout of a King was 
amongst us when your well-fought battles were 
crowned with victory; and to this hour we 
believe that the independence of America will, 
for a while, secure the liberty of this country, 
but if that continent had been reduced, Britain 
would not have been long free."f This was the 
spirit of the British Baptists during the Revo- 
lution, whose representatives in Parliament, 
though of another creed, breathed defiance in 
the ears of the king's ministers. 

'^Eobert Hall's Works, Harper, vol. lY., pp. 48-9. 

t Backus' History of the Baptists, :N"ewton, 11., p. 19S, N. 



american revolution. 11 

Just before the Revolution the Baptists gave 
THE Colonists of America an impressive ex- 
ample OF disobedience to tyicked laws. 

Among the Anglo-Saxon people law lias 
always had a peculiar sanctity, and precedent 
and custom have enjoyed a special reverence. 
Other nations in times of excitement have occa- 
sionally uprooted their most sacred and ancient 
institutions, and swept avay every trace of their 
existence. But even slight fundamental changes 
among populations of Anglo-Saxon origin have 
been generally regarded with suspicion, and have 
been only adopted aftermost serious deliberation, 
and from a conviction of their pressing necessity. 
The Baptists in this country, in 1770, may have 
been regarded as fanatics, but they were uni- 
versally esteemed as men of God who would not 
perpetrate what they knew to be a wrong for all 
the world. And when they deliberatel}^, ever}- 
where, and very frequently violated the plainest 
Colonial laws, and showed a readiness to suffer 
anything in their persons and property rather 
than submit to enactments in conflict with their 
consciences, the attention of the whole people 

was aroused, and the wisdom of many of the 
2 



12 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

best men in all the colonies led them to doubt 
the patriotism of obeying unjust laws. And 
by this painful method the suffering Baptists 
trained their countrymen to disregard the tyran- 
nical legislation of the mother country. 

In 1770^ many of our Colonial law-makers 
had a portion of the spirit of Deputy-Governor 
Dudley, of Massachusetts, who, when he died, 
had these lines, among others, in his pocket : 

" Let men of God, in court and churches, watch, 
Tor such as do a toleration hatch," * 

But our Baptist fathers demanded full liberty 
of conscience for themselves, and for all others, 
and gloried in disobedience to all persecuting 
laws. 

In June, 1768, John Waller, Lewis Craig and 
James Childs, three Baptist ministers, were ar- 
rested in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, on the 
charge of "preaching the gospel contrary to 
law." " May it please your worship," said the 
prosecuting attorney, " they cannot meet a man 
on the road without ramming a text of Scripture 
down his throat." On refusing to pledge them- 

^ Grimshaw's History of the United States, p. 58, Phila., 1836. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



13 



selves to stop preaching in that county for a 
year and a day, they were forthwith ordered 
to prison. And as they were led through 
the streets of Fredericksburg to the county 
jail, they united in singing the well-known 

hymn: 

" Broad is the road that leads to death, 
And thousands walk together there ; 
But wisdom shows a narrow path, 
With here and there a traveller." * 

While in prison for preaching " contrary to 
law " in obedience to Christ's commands, and in 
accordance with the promptings of hearts full 
of love for perishing souls, they proclaimed the 
glorious gospel to listening throngs through the 
prison doors and windows. And when they 
were set at liberty they went forth avowed 
rebels against these tyrannical enactments on 
the statute book of Virginia, f 

In Middlesex and Caroline counties, Va., 
many Baptist ministers were imprisoned for 
preaching; the jails into which they were cast 
were loathsome with vermin ; they were sub- 
jected to the treatment of common felons, and 

* Cramp's History of the Baptists, p. 532. 
tllowison's History of Virginia, IT., 167-8. 



14 



THE BAPTISTS AND THE 



no legal effort was left untried to stifle their 
earnest efforts to win the lost to the cross/'^ 

William Webber and Joseph Anthony were 
imprisoned in Chesterfield county for preaching 
Jesus. And such jDoor reverence did they 
cherish for the unjust laws of Virginia that 
they actually invited the people to come to the 
walls of the jail that they might proclaim to 
them the good news of the kingdom, f Colonel 
Archibald Cary, of Ampthill, according to tra- 
dition, was the greatest persecutor in this county; 
and in it the law outraged the rights of Baptists 
more frequently and more oppressively than 
anywhere else in that colony. But so little 
terror did the Baptists of Chesterfield county 
feel for the punishments of the law that they 
cultivated that county more extensively than 
any other in Virginia and reaped from it an 
abundant harvest. J 

The Kev. James Ireland was thrust into 
prison for preaching in Virginia, and while in 
jail an effort was made to destroy his life by 

*Howison's History of Virginia, II., 1G9. 

t Ibid. 

I Campbell's History of Yirginia, 5.>5, Phila., 1S60. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



15 



putting powder under the floor of his cell, but 
it was unsuccessful ; then his enemies tried to 
suffocate liim by filling his little room with the 
stifling* fumes of burning brimstone and pepper- 
pods; and finally his physician and jailor con- 
spired to poison him, and though the attempt • 
did not immediately destroy him, yet he never 
fully recovered from the effects of their atrocious 
dose . t But neither imprisonment nor threatened 
or attempted murder could silence this grand old 
minister or his courageous brethren. To keep 
the people from hearing the imprisoned preachers 
a wall was sometimes built around the jails in 
which they were confined, and half drunken 
outcasts were hired to beat drums to drown 
their voices; J but they would preach, and the 
Spirit, as in apostolic times, blessed the testi- 
mony of the prison witnesses for Jesus. Baptist 
ministers were mobbed; sometimes, while they 
were immersing converts, men on horseback 
would ride into the water and try to turn bap- 

* Leland's Works, p. 107. 
1 t Howe's Virginia Historical Collections, p. 239, Charles- 

' ton, 1846. 

JLeland'sWorks, p. 107. 



16 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

tisrn into ridicule ; they were often interrupted 
in their discourses and insulted ; ^ and the law 
laid upon them its heavy hand, but they de- 
spised the jailj the lash, and the malicious jeer. 
And when they were hunted like wild beasts, 
and denounced as wolves in sheep's clothing, 
they meekly replied, " That if they w^ere w^olves 
and their persecutors the true sheep, it was un- 
accountable that they should treat them with 
such cruelty ; that wolves would destroy sheep, 
but that it was never known till then that 
sheep would prey upon wolves." f And they 
wxnt forth in violation of law and in contempt 
for all illegal opposition to prey upon the un- 
converted sheep and to bring all Virginia to 
Jesus. 

In New England they were frequently arrested 
for not paying taxes to support the Congrega- 
tional clergy, and women J were honored with 
this privilege as well as men. Their property 
was seized, and generally sold for a mere trifle 
to pay the church dues of their neighbors of the 

* Howison's History of Virginia, II., 169, Kichmond, 1848. 
fSemple's History of Virginia Baptists, p. 21. 
t Backus' Church History, :N'ewton, II., 97. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 17 

^^ Standing Order." The sacred tax collectors 
at Sturbridge, Mass., according to an unim- 
peachable Avitness, " took pewter from the 
shelves, skillets, kettles, pots and warming-pans, 
workmen's tools and spinning-wheels ; they 
drove away geese and swine and cows, and 
where there was but one it was not spared. A 
brother, recently ordained, returned to Stur- 
bridge for his family, when he w\as thrust into 
prison, and kept during the cold winter till 
some one paid his fine and released him. Mr. 
D. Fisk lost five pewter plates and a cow ; J. 
Perry was robbed of the baby's cradle and a 
steer ; J. Blunt's fire-place was rifled of andirons, 
shovel and tongs, and A. Bloice, H. Fisk, John 
Streeter, Benjamin Bobbins, Phenehas Collier, 
John Newel, Josiah Perry, Nathaniel Smith and 
John Cory and I. Barstow were plundered of 
spinning-wheels, household goods, cows, and their 
liberty for a season." * Sturbridge is but a speci- 
men of what was occurring all over New Eng- 
land, except in Bhode Island. But our fathers 
submitted to robbery and loathsome prisons 

* Backus' Church History, Newton, II., pp. 94-5, note. 



18 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

with foul associates rather than render willing 
obedience to iniquitous laws. In the East and 
in the South Baptist witnesses, from prison 
windows, and sometimes with scourged shoul- 
ders, and in a voice as holy as ever floated on 
the lips of martyrs, announced to multitudes of 
men that " Unrighteous laws were conspiracies 
against God and the best interests of our race, 
plots of the Evil One, to be met by exposure 
and stern resistance, disobedience to which was 
loyalty to Jehovah." 

Bordering on Ke volution ary days persecutions 
were more general than ever before, and the tes- 
timony of Baptists against the crime of obeying 
sinful laws was in the very air and floating on 
the sunbeams of every morning, and when 
George III. resolved on taxation for the Colo- 
nies without representation, the example of the 
Baptists became contagious, and resistance to 
this despotical doctrine became the engrossing 
thought of the Colonists of America. 



Al^JEKlCAN REVOLUTION. 



19 



Rhode Island is a Good Example of the Rela- 
tions OF OUR Baptist Fathers to Liberty 

AND THE EeVOLUTION. 

Many of the noble sons of Rhode Island, in 

the " times that tried men's souls," were of other 

creeds, but a much larger number followed the 

people, the stream of whose denominational life 

[you can trace through every age till you see it 

issue forth from the heart of the Great Teacher, 

stepping up out of the Jordan. Morgan 

Edwards, a man of great historical learning, 

who died in 1795, says: "The Baptists have 

always been more numerous than any other sect 

of Christians in Rhode Island ; two-fifths of the 

|iinhabitants, at least, are reputed Baptists. The 

i: governors, deputy-governors, judges, assembly- 

I men and officers, civil and military, are chietiy 

I of that persuasion.'"^' 

I " The first work of the Rhode Islanders," says 

[ Edwards, " after their incorporation in 1644, was 

I to make a law that ' Every man who submits 

' peaceably to civil government in this Colony 

il • ^ 

' * Collections of the Kliodo Iskind Historical Society, VI., 

1 304. 



20 Tin: BAPTISTS and the 

sliall W(^rsliip Cod according- to tlio dictates of 
his own conscience without molestation.'"'-' 

Khode Ishind, as early as 1 TO 1, foresaw the 
coniinLi: lievolutioiiary storm, and to secure co- 
operation among the colonists established a 
*^ Committee of Correspondence," whose special 
(hitv it was to stir them up to maintain their 
liherties with spirit and to ccmcert methods for 
united ellort.t On the 4th of May, 177G, just 
two montlis before the adoption of the '' Declara- 
tion of Independence," Khode Island withdrew 
from the sceptre of Great Britain, and repudi- 
ated every form of allegiance to George 111. J 
Scarcely had the retreating troops of General 
Gage reached Boston from Concord and Lex- 
ington when the nearest lUiode Island towns 
liad sent recruits to their Massachusetts l)rethreu 
in arms; and the Legislature soon after voted 
fifteen liumhcd men to he sent to the sc(Mie of 
danger. The people of Newport removed forty 



♦Collections ot the Rhode Island Historical Society, W. 
p. .-^04. 

t Bancroft's History of the United States, V., 21S. 

X Hioprai>liy of the Signers of tlie Declaration of HuleixMid 
once, Philadelphia, IXU, I.. .".Tl; Arnold's History of Hhod. 
Island, N. Y., 18G0, II., oTl. 



AMT.KKWX KrVOU'TlOX. iM 

piocos of ai-tilK'ry from tlic roval f )r( to a place 
of sc'Ciiritv, ^^ln'^^ tlicy iiiiiilit he rcadx' for the 
defcju'c and not the (Icstriictioii of patriots. 
'Wlicii the hi'claratioii of IiKlcjX'iKlcncr was ni-o- 
elaiiiu'd at Newport, llast (ireemvieli and Trox i- 
dcnci'. it falK'(l forth the most entliusiastic out- 
bursts of dcli-lit. and shouts for " Lihertv o'er 
and »)\'r the iilohc."--^ A JJritisli liistoriaii sa\s : 
'• The Khode IshmdiTs were sueh ardent ])ati-iots 
that al"ter the capture of the ishmd of JJhode 
I>hind l»y Sir Peter Parker, it i"e(piired a ^reat 
body of ]uen to b(^ kept there, in perfect idle- 
ness, for three years, to retain them in sul)jec- 
tion."-r (Jovernor Green, in a dispatch to Wash- 
iniiton, in 1781,. says: ^SSometimos every fencible 
man in the State, sometimes a third, and at 
other times a foui'th pai't, was called out upon 
dr.ty/':;: l>ut the little State that had declared 
its independence while other Colonies Mere hesi- 
tatini!', and thirty-two days|| belbre the bra\e 



* I^aiicroft's History of the United States, TX., .Sfi. 
t History of Kiij^'land liy Iliinic, Smollett and Fair, III.,!)!». 
t Collections of the Khode Island Ilistoiical Society, A' I., 
290. 
II Ilowison's History of \'irginia, II.. I.'W. 



22 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

and patriotic Virginians had renounced allegi- 
ance to the English king, never halted for a 
moment in her courageous efforts. Her sons, 
with the blood of Roger Williams and his valiant 
friends in their veins, showed their American 
brethren that liberty was the sovereign of their 
hearts. 

Before the Revolution Rhode Island w^as the 
freest Colony in North America, or in the his- 
tory of our race. Pier Baptist founders had 
made their settlement a Republic complete in 
every development of liberty, even while under 
the nominal rule of a king; they created a 
government with which there could be no lawful 
interference by any power in the Old World or 
the New. Rhode Island had no viceroy ; before 
the Revolution the king had no veto on her 
laws. In March, 1GG3, it was enacted that 
" no tax should be imposed or required of the 
Colony but by the act of the General Assem- 
bly."'^' In 1704, Mompesson, the chief-justice 
of New York, wrote Lord Nottingham that 
" when he w^as in Rhode Island the people 

* Biograplij^ of Signers of the Dec laration of Independence, 
Philadelphia, 1831, I., p. 311. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. ^3 

acted in all things as if they were outside the 
dominion of the crown."''' Bancroft sj^eaks of 
Khode Island at the Revolution " as enjoying a 
form of government, under its charter, so 
thoroughly republican that no change was 
required beyond a renunciation of the king's 
name in the style of its public acts."f " Rhode 
Island," says her historian, Arnold, when the 
United States Constitution was adopted, '^for 
more than a century and a half has enjoyed a 
freedom unknown to any of her compeers, and 
through more than half of that period her peo- 
^ pie had been involved with rival Colonies in a 
struggle for political existence and for the main- 
tenance of those principles of civil and religious 
freedom which are now everywhere received in 
America." J The State of Roger Williams had 
more at stake in the Revolution than any other 
Colony; founded by men who loved a wider 
liberty than their fellow-settlers elsewhere, its 
people were accustomed to enjoy higher privi- 
leges than their neighbors, and the destruction 

* Sabine's American Loyalists, Boston, 1847, p. 15. 
t History of the United States, IX., 261. 
it Arnold's History of Rhode Island, II., 5G3. 
3 



24 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

of American liberty by the king threatened 
them with heavier calamities than any British 
plantation on the Continent. With scarcely 
fifty thousand people of all ages and of both 
sexes, the Baptist State supported three regi- 
ments in the Continental army throughout the 
entire war;'-' an immense number for her, when 
it is remembered how many men she had to 
employ for local defence. Rhode Island began 
the struggle early, and continued inflicting her 
heaviest blows till victory rested upon the ban- 
ners of the United States all over their wide- 
spread territor}^ And when the Constitution 
of the United States was adopted, requiring each 
State to sacrifice some of its independence to 
form a strong General Government, Rhode 
Island hesitated long before she would accept 
that grand instrument. The other States, 
except North Carolina, before 1789 received the 
plan of government devised by the Convention 
of 1787. They had, however, never enjoj^ed full 
liberty except during the brief period of the 
war, but to Rhode Island full freedom was an 



^"Biography of Signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
I., 373. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



25 



inheritance possessed for many generations, to 
sacrifice the smallest part of which inflicted 
great pain. As Baptists we have reason to 
thank God for the Revolutionary deeds of our 
heroic brethren in Rhode Island. 

The Baptists were among the first Religious 
Communities to Recognize the Continental 
Congress as a Legitimate Body. 

On the 5 til of September, 1774, in Carj)enter's 
Hall, Philadelphia, the first Continental Con- 




CARPENTER S HALL, nilLADELPHIA. 



26 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

gress assembled. The eyes of the whole Ameri- 
can people rested upon it, and so did the hearts 
and hopes of a vast majority of them. Eight 
days after Congress first met the Warren 
Association of Baptist Churches solemnly recog- 
nized it as, in a sense, the Supreme Court of the 
American Colonies, and sent it this appeal : 

Honorable Gentlemen : 

As the Baptist Clmrclies in New England are most heartily 
concerned for the preservation and defence of the rights and 
privileges of this country, and are deeply affected by the 
encroachments upon the same which have been lately made 
by the British Parliament, and are willing to unite with our 
dear countrymen to pursue every prudent measure for relief, 
so, we would beg leave to say, that, as a distinct denomina- 
tion of Protestants, we conceive that we have an equal claim 
to charter rights with the rest of our fellow-subjects, and yet 
we have long been denied the free and full enjoyment of those 
rights, as to the support of religious worship.* . . . 

Then follows an appeal for such relief as Con- 
gress, by legitimate means, may be able to secure. 

The Philadelphia Baptist Association, the 
oldest body of this character in America, sent a 
large committee to Congress to aid the appeal of 
our New England brethren. Dr. Samuel Jones, 

* Backus' History of the Baptists, Xewton, IT., p. 200, note. 



AMEKICAN REVOLUTION. Zi 

in his Centenary Sermon before the Phihidelphia 
Association, at its meeting held in this city in 
1807, says: "On the assembhng of the first 
Continental Congress, I was one of the com- 
mittee, under appointment of your body, that, 
in company with the late Kev. Isaac Backus, of 
Massachusetts, met the delegates in Congress 
from that State in yonder State House, to see if 
we could not obtain some security for that liberty 
for which we were then fighting and bleeding at 
their side. It seemed unreasonable to us that 
we should be called to stand up with them in 
defence of liberty if, after all, it was to be liberty 
for one party to oppress another." ''^' These two 
Baptist bodies formally recognized the Revolu- 
tion and the Continental Congress, and they were 
among the first religious communities in the 
Colonies to give the sanction of their influence 
to that great Bevolutionary Legislature. 

Nor does it detract from their recognition that 
they wanted Congress to assist them in securing 
relief from persecution. The conscientious Bap- 
tists who would preach, though imprisoned and 
scourged for it, and who refused to pay^ taxes to 

'•^'MiDutt's of Pliihidelpliiii Baptist Association, p. 460. 



28 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

support tlie State clergy, though certain to be 
thrust into jail for their disobedience, , and to 
have their property seized and sold for less than 
half its worth by the oificers of the law, would 
have borne the w^orst penalties ever endured by 
saintly sufferers rather than have recognized a 
body tainted with usurpation. The true Baptist 
will bear any outrage before he will accept relief 
by unholy means. Never were Baptists more 
cruelly used than by James II., King of England. 
He was the most defective sovereign in moral 
worth that ever polluted a throne. Becoming 
a Romanist, he issued a decree dispensing with 
all penal laws against Dissenters and Catholics.'^ 
James had no authority to alter any law of 
England. To secure himself from the vengeance 
of the next Parliament he abrogated the charters 
of several cities and that of London among the 
rest, that he might appoint borough magistrates 
who would return pliant members to the House 
of Commons. William Kiffin was the most 
influential Baptist minister in England, and he 
was a wealthy London merchant. James sought 
to bribe him by making him an alderman of 

*Neiirs lli.story of the Puritans, Dublin, 1755, IV., 46. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 29 

London, an office then held in high esteem and 
still regarded with great favor ; he supposed also 
that by this act of royal favor the Baptists would 
be disposed to support his usurpation, even 
though they well knew that he had only ceased 
to be persecutor for the special benefit of the 
Papal Church. Kiffin was brought to the palace, 
and James made his projDOsition with as much 
grace of manner as his natural rudeness per- 
mitted, and Kiffin immediately and absolutely 
rejected it. He knew that James had the might 
but not the authority to make him an alderman, 
and he refused an honor that came from 
usurpation. John Bunyan had spent twelve 
years of his life in prison for preaching Christ ; 
the laws were still in force that had handed 
him to the jailer, and James might put them in 
execution any time, but James needed Bunyan's 
popularity to aid him in his assault upon the 
liberties of his people and upon the established 
Church, and he intimated to him that he had 
an office for him that would show the world the 
king's estimate of the illustrious dreamer. But 
Banjan turned his back upon the hand that 
offered him liberty and an office, because it was 



30 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

the hand of the regal burglar who stole the 
gifts which he offered."^ The representatives 
of one hundred congregations of Baptists met in 
London in 1689, and adopted the Confession of 
Faith which was subsequently known in this 
country as the Philadelphia Confession, and they 
issued a protest against a small number of obscure 
Baptists who had been persuaded by royal favors 
to express approval of the dispensing power 
which James had wickedly assumed, and in this 
document they declare that : "To the utmost 
of their knowledge there was not one congrega- 
tion that gave consent to anything of that nature, 
nor did ever countenance any of their members 
to own an absolute Dower in the late kins; to dis- 
pense with the penal laws and tests, being well 
satisfied that the doing thereof, by his sole pre- 
rogative, would lay the foundation of the de- 
struction of the Protestant religion and of slavery 
to this kingdom." 'j- KiflBn, Bunyan and the 
English Baptists of James' day, were worthy pre- 
decessors of our American brethren in the Kevo- 
lution. They would have burned with unuttera- 

'^'Macaulay's History of England, Boston, 1S52, II., 177, 178. 
t Ivimey's History of the Englisli Baptists, III., 335. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 31 

ble indignation and turned away in wrath from 
any American James II. or from any Congress of 
Colonial usurpers who would have ventured to 
offer them deliverance from legal wrongs on a 
principle that would justify the abrogation of any 
enactment without the intervention of the lawful 
representatives of the j^eople. In seeking relief 

;from the Continental Congress, the two most 
influential Baptist organizations in the land gave 
that Assembly their formal approval. And there 
is reason to believe that the sanction of two such 
respectable bodies, publicly bestowed at a time 
when doubt and alarm prevailed everywhere, 
had a powerful influence in confirming the faith 
of patriots in and out of the first Continental 

I Congress, in the righteous character of its de- 
liberations. 

,The Baptists as a People were Enthusiastic 
Advocates op the E evolution. 

They had walked through the furnace of 

persecution frequently, and they received such 

sustaining grace from the Great Saviour that 

|they were afraid of nothing. The timid and 

I'lovers of ease turned from the Baptist fold. 



32 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

Thousands in it had been recently converted, 
and they were fired with a first and a glowing- 
love. The whole denomination was overflowing 
with the same enthusiasm which made the early 
Christians reckon nothing dear to them but the 
triumph of truth. Their aid in securing Kevo- 
lutionary freedom was of the highest importance ; 
difficulties to such men were trifles, opposition 
only stirred up greater power in them than it 
controlled. \ The Baptist, by the inspiration of 
his renewed nature, and by his heaven-given 
princi^ples, is a lover of universal liberty. He 
Avill not rob a child of its freedom by making it 
a church memljer through infant baptism before 
it has exercised its choice or the Spirit has 
bestowed his grace ; he will not force any man, 
by law, to give pecuniary or other support to 
his own religious opinions, nor will he inflict 
punishment for any supposed heresies. He who 
holds these doctrines is necessarily in favor of 
unfurling the flag of freedom over every quarter 
of the earth, and over every human being who 
can be safely sot at libert}^) 

The Baptist General Association of Virginia 
notified the Convention of the people of Virginia 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 33 

that '^ They had considered what part it would 
:be proper to take in the unhappy contest, and 
Uiad determined that ihQj ought to make a 
inihtary resistance to Great Britain in her 
unjust invasion, tyrannical oppression, and re- 
peated hostilities."'^' And they proclaimed to 
the world that " to a man they were in ftivor of 
the Revolution." f This action undoubtedly had 
great weight with the Convention whose dele- 
gates voted for the Declaration of Independence 
the next year in the Continental Congress. 

Preachers and people, says Semple, were 
j engrossed with thoughts and schemes for effect- 
;ing the Revolution. This ardent patriotism led 
^ some ministers to become 

Glicqilalns in the Army. 

Baptists felt the greatest interest in the 
soldiers of the Revolution, and having unbounded 
confidence in the power of prayer they were 
anxious to have holy men of God with our armed 
heroes in camps, hospitals, and battle-fields, that 

•^Ileadley's Cliaplains and Clergy of the Revolution, p. 250, 
N. Y., 1SG4. 
t Semple's History of the Virginia Baptists, p. 62. 



34 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

the J miglit not only point them to the Divine 
Saviour who gives health and healing to the 
sick and wounded, and victory in every fierce 
struggle, but that they might pray to the Lord 
of hosts for success in every deadly conflict. In 
A. D. COS, when Brocmail put his army in order 
of battle in front of Chester, in old England, to 
defend his people against the heathen king of 
Northumbria, Ethelfrid, the ministers in large 
numbers stood apart from the army praying for 
the success of Brocmail. When Ethelfrid per- 
ceived, them he inquired what they were doing, 
and on learning their business he ordered them 
to be killed first, because they had already com- 
menced the battle by praying to God against 
him.'-' In this spirit Baptist ministers were 
eager to go to the army as chaplains. Leading 
pastors from the East, from the Middle States, 
and from the South were with their armed 
brethren in all the toils, privations and perils 
of the Revolutionary war. 

The Baptist General Association of Virginia, 
which represented a numerous section of our 
denomination, applied, in 1775, to the conven- 

*Bede's Ecclesiastical History, II., 2. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. OO 

tion of their State for permission to preach to 
the army encamped in their bomids. Their 
request was granted ; and they sent the Rev. 
Jeremiah Walker and the Rev. John WiUiams 
to address the soldiers. These were the most 
popular preachers in the Baptist denomination 
in the Old Dominion.''' 

I Elder M'Clanahan, a Baptist minister, raised 
a company of soldiers in Culpeper County 
for the Continental service, chiefly from his 
own denomination, to whom he ministered as a 
chaplain, and whom he commanded as their 
, captain. f 

The Rev. Charles Thompson, of Massachu- 
setts, a scholar, an eloquent preacher, and a 
man of great piety, was during three years a 
chaplain in the army. Mr. Thompson was 
deemed such a friend to his country by 
tthe enemy that he was arrested and kept a 
iprisoner for a short time on board a guard 
ship, and then somewhat unexpectedly set at 
liberty. J 

; ^Semple's History of Virginia Baptists, p. G2. 
t Howe's Virginia Historical Collections, p. 238. 
JSprague's Annals of the American Baptist Pulpit, p. 134. 
4 



3G THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

The Kev. Dr. Hezekiali Smith, of Haverhill, 
Mass., at the outbreak of the Kevolution, had a 
church for whose spiritual welhxre he was ten- 
derly exercised, and to which he was united by 
fatherly ties. He was a man of refined and re- 
tiring habits, and seemingly the last minister in 
his State likely to seek a position in the army. 
But his patriotic ardor w^as so intense that it 
tore him from church and family and sent him as 
a chaplain to the army. In his new position he 
discharcred the duties of his office Avith marked 
fidelity; and by his refined manners, wisdom 
and bravery obtained the confidence of the most 
distinguished officers in the army. He became 
the intimate friend of Washington himself, who 
treated him with unusual courtesy. He served 
in the army for five years, boldly reproving vice^ 
and encouraging a confident trust in the Great 
Captain of our salvation. He had a commanding 
person, and the air of a perfect gentleman. The 
constable of a neighboring town, to which Dr. 
Smith had gone to preach, was " a weak and 
inferior-looking person," but he was full of self- 
importance ; and armed with the authority of 
the law, he came " to warn the stranger out of 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 37 

the place." But when he saw the imposing 
appearance of the intruder he was confused and 
stammered out: '^1 warn yon — off God's earth." 
" My good sir," said the preacher, " wdiere shall 
I go to?" "Go anywhere," was the reply; "go 
to the Isle of Shoals."'^ But the man of God did 
not leave God's earth, or visit the Isle of Shoals 
at that time. 

The Kev. Dr. Eogers, of Philadelphia, was 
the first student of Brown University ; and in 
his day he was a man of celebrity in literary 
circles and of attractive talents as a preacher. 
Dr. Benjamin Rush was a member of his con- 
gregation, and other persons of culture waited 
upon his ministry. For some time he was Pro- 
fessor of Oratory and Belles-Lettres in the 
University of Pennsylvania. An English gen- 
tleman speaks of Dr. Rogers, wdiile in Philadel- 
phia, as taking him to the residence of Wash- 
ington, and says : " When we called the General 

'was not at home, but while we were talking 
with his private secretary in the hall he came 

i in, and spoke to Dr. Rogers w^ith the greatest 
ease and familiarity. He immediately asked us 

* Manning and Brown University, pp. 137-8, Boston. 



38 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

up to the drawing-room where Lady Washing- 
ton and his two nieces were."* When Pennsyl- 
vania raised three battalions of foot, the Legis- 
lature appointed Dr. Rogers their chaplain. He 
was afterwards a brigade-chaplain in the 
Continental army. For five years this dis- 
tinguished man followed the fortunes of the 
Revolutionary army as an unwearied and 
beloved chaphiin.f 

The Rev. David Jones was an original thinker, 
and he was fearless in expressing his sentiments. 
He was an educated man ; but he possessed what 
schools never gave, a powerful intellect. As a 
preacher he always secured the undivided atten- 
tion of his hearers, and never failed to instruct 
and cheer them. AYhen the Revolutionary War 
began, Mr. Jones lived in a section of New Jersey 
where Tories made it neither agreeable nor safe 
for a patriot to reside, especially if, like Mr. 
Jones, he w^as an orator capable of moving men 
by his eloquence, and a brave man to whom fear 
was an unexplored mystery. So Mr. Jones, 
believing that he could serve his country better 

* Manning and Brown University, p. 94. 

t Sprague's Annals of tlie American Baptist Pulpit, p. 14-5. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 39 

than by martyrdom from such hands, removed 
to Pennsylvania. 

In 1775, on a public fast, he preached to the 
regiment of CoL Dewees a sermon overflowing 
with patriotism, and with unshaken confidence 
in God. The discourse was given to the printer 
and widely circulated over the Colonies; and it 
exerted an extensive influence in favor of the 
" good cause." 

In 1776, Mr. Jones became chaplain of a 
Pennsylvania regiment, and entered upon duties 
for which he was better qualified than almost 
any other man among the patriotic ministers of 
America. 

lie was never away from scenes of danger; 
nor from the rude couch of the sick or the 
wounded soldier when words of comfort were 
needed. He followed Gates through two cam- 
paigns, and served as a brigade chaplain under 
Wayne. He was in the battle of Brandywine, 
the slaughter of Paoli, where he escaped only 
by the special care of Providence, and in all the 
deadly conflicts in which his brigade w^as 
engaged, until tlie surrender of Yorktow^i. 
General Howe, learning that he was a pillar to 



40 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

the Revolution in and out of the arinj;, offered 
a reward for his capture, and a plot was unsuc- 
cessfully laid to secure his person. Full of wit, 
eloquence, patriotism, and fearless courage, he 
was a model chaplain, and a tower of strength 
to the cause of freedom. He was the grand- 
father of our esteemed brother, the Hon. Horatio 
Gates Jones, of Pennsylvania.'^' 

The Rev. John Gano was born in Hopewell, 
New Jersey, and possessed in a large degree the 
patriotic spirit of the Baptists of that place, 
which had so many representatives engaged in 
the Revolution ; he had great mental powers, 
and as a "minister he shone likef a star of the 
first ma2:nitude in the American churches." 
His power as a minister of eminence was widely 
felt, and his labors extensive and successful. 
From the pastorship of the First Baptist Church, 
of New York, he entered the army as a chaplain, 
and performed services which rendered him 
invaluable to the officers and men with whom 
he was associated. His love for his country's 
cause made the humblest soldier a brother ; his 

*Sprague's Annals of the American Baptist Pulpit, p. 87. 
t Ibid, p. 64. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 41 

genial manners and fearless daring made him 
the special friend of officers of all ranks : wliile 
the spirit of the Saviour so completely controlled 
his entire conduct that his influence over his 
miUtary charge was unbounded. Headley says : 
" In the fierce conflict on Chatterton's Hill he 
was continually under fire^ and his cool and quiet 
courage in thus fearlessly exposing himself was 
afterwards commented on in the most glowing 
terms by the officers who stood near him." He 
himself in speaking of it said : " My station in 
time of action I knew to be among the surgeons, 
but in this battle I somehow got in front of the 
regiment; yet I durst not quit my place for fear 
of dampening the spirits of the soldiers, or of 
bringing on myself an imputation of cowardice."''* 
When this courageous man " saw more than 
half the army flying from the sound of cannon, 
others abandoning their pieces without firing a 
shot, and a brave band of only six hundred 
maintaining a conflict with the whole British 
army, filled with chivalrous and patriotic 
sympathy for the valiant men that refused to 

* Headley 's Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution, pp. 
255, 257. 



42 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

run, lie could not resist the strong desire to 
share their perils, and he eagerly pushed 
forward to the fronts ''^ He preserved his 
moral dignity as a Christian minister under the 
most trying circumstances, and by his example, 
spirit, and instructions, he assisted the brave 
patriots to endure hardships, to struggle success- 
fully against despair, and to fight with the cour- 
age of men who were sure that God was with 
them, and that ultimate triumph was certain. 
When w^e read of the self-sacrifice of men like 
these we are not surprised that they attracted 
the attention of Washington, and that he 
declared that " Baptist chaplains were among 
the most prominent and useful in the army."f 
And Howe, in speaking of the preaching and 
position of captain assumed by Elder M'Clana- 
han, is constrained to say that ^^ the Baptists 
were among the most strenuous supjDorters of 
libert3^"J We have reason to bless God for 
these preaching and praying heroes who followed 

*Headley's Chaplains and Clergy of the Eevolution, pp. 
2o5, 257. 
t Manning and Brown University, p. 13G, Boston, 1864. 
X Virginia Historical Collections, p. 238. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 43 

the standards of the Revolution through hunger 
and cold and nakedness, through retreats, 
diseases and wounds, through danger and blood 
and victory; men whose faith and prayers 
brought success from heaven upon our cause, 
notwithstanding discouragements and disasters ; 
men whose names shall be held in everlastins; 
honor by their Baptist brethren and by Ameri- 
can patriots while human history preserves the 
records of generous sacrifices and holy worth. 

Some Mimsters served the Revolution in other 
Spheres, 

James Manning, D. D., president of the col- 
lege now known as Brown University, was one 
of these. Few men in his day, in his own or 
other denominations, wielded a more extensive 
influence. His polished manners, his acknowl- 
edged learning, his quick perception, his untir- 
ing activity, his habit of putting his whole soul 
into the toils which occupied his time, and the 
modest ease with which he moved in every 
society, made him a power wherever he went. 
In the Eevolution he was the most influential 
man in Rhode Island. He states in a letter to 



44 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

Dr. Itippon, of London, written in 1784: "I 
think I can say that I never in one instance 
doubted the justice of our cause. "'^' Filled with 
this conviction he was ever pLanning something 
for the pubUc good, or performing it witli un- 
wearied effort and unselfish heroism. His con- 
flicts were not on the field of glory, and yet his 
services were more substantial than the marches 
and wounds and victorious efforts of some of his 
military brethren. And Ehode Islanders re- 
garded him as the sage and patriot of their State 
in Revolutionary times. When General Sul- 
livan commanded the Continental troops in 
Rhode Island, three men were condemned to 
death by a court-martial. Manning had his 
sympathies enlisted in their behalf, and on 
making an earnest appeal to the General, he 
immediately gave the president a reprieve for 
the unfortunate men, with which he hurried to 
the place of execution and arrived just in time 
to save their lives.f 

The number of men taken away from culti- 
vating the soil in Rhode Island, and the occu- 



*Manninfr and Brown University, p. 328, Boston, 1864. 
flbid., pp. 259, 2G0. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 45 

pation of a large section of that State by the 

enemy, made provisions occasionally scarce. 

I Several of the States had laws forbidding the 

transportation of food beyond their own limits, 

so that a supply for the wants of Rhode Island 

became a serious question. To obtain relief 

Dr. Manning was commissioned by the governor 

and council of war of Rhode Island to make an 

I appeal to the government of Connecticut to 

[, relax their laws on this point. Dr. Manning 

' attended to the duty imposed upon him and was 

i^ successful beyond his expectations.* 

I Once entering the Legislature while it was in 

I session, without any special motive, the mem- 

I bers without concert on the motion of Commo- 
I'i dore Hopkins elected him to fill a vacant seat in 

II Congress. This graceful tribute to his eminent 
I worth was much enhanced by its unanimity, 
j and by the well-known fact that Dr. Maiming 
i aspired to no secular position, however exalted.f 
[ After the establishment of the United States 

government under the Constitution in 1789, and 
li before Rhode Island ratified that instrument, 

* Manning and Brown University, pp. 259, 260. 
tSprague's Annals of the American Baptist Pulpit, p. 92. 



46 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

Dr. Manning and Benjamin Bourn, Esq., were 
sent to Congress, then in session in New York, 
to present a petition for relief from certain 
grievances which affected the ocean commerce 
of their State.* By persons in all positions in life 
from George Washington down, President Man- 
ning was regarded as one of the chief fathers 
and founders of the American Revolution. 

The Rev. David Barrow, a brother of spotless 
character, and of extensive usefulness, held in 
universal esteem, not only commended patriotism 
to others, but when danger pressed he shoul- 
dered his musket and performed good service 
against the common foe, and he obtained the 
same reputation in the camp and in the field 
which he enjoyed in the happy scenes of minis- 
terial toil elsewhere. f The Rev. Daniel Mar- 
shall was so strongly identified with the cause 
of his struggling countrymen that the British 
arrested him, and kept him under guard until 
he had an opportunity of exhorting and praying 
in the presence of the officers and men, and they 
at once set him at liberty. J 

^Manning and Brown University, p. 424, Boston, 1864. 
t Semple's History of the Virginia Baptists, p. 359. 
J Ibid., 372. 



AMERICAN KEVOLUTION. 47 

The Eev. Oliver Hart was appointed by the 

Council of Safet}^. then the executive of South 

Carolina, with William IL Drayton and the 

Rev. William Tennent, to travel through the 

State and expound the principles and claims 

of patriotism to the people.'-' The Kev. Dr. 

Richard Furman was one of the most active 

and useful patriots in the South, and in recogni- 

I tion of his services he was appointed by the 

1^ Revolutionary Society of South Carolina and 

I the Society of the Cincinnati to deliver dis- 

•1 courses commemorative of Washington and 

Hamilton, and he was elected a member of the 

! convention that framed the Constitution of 

South Carolina, f 

'I The Rev. Dr. Stillman, of Boston, was a 

Christian of great consecration of heart, and 

lived so much for the better world that few 

would expect him to take much interest in the 

I temporal affairs of this. But in our Revolution, 

[ and in the period when its symptoms foretold 

I its sure approach, such men as Dr. Stillman 

I *Sprague's Annals of the American Baptist Pulpit, pp. 

I 48-9. 

1^ tibia., p. 102. 



48 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

were everywhere enlisted with their whole 
hearts in ite service. No one in Massachusetts 
was recognized as a more ardent friend of liberty 
than the pastor of the ' First Baptist Church of 
Boston. In eloquent terms he advocated the 
doctrines of the Revolution in a sermon preached 
in 1766 on the repeal of the Stamp Act; and in 
another in 1770 before the Honorable Artillery 
Company of Boston. * 

As a preacher he had no superior in New 
England ; among his admirers were John Adams, 
General Knox, and Governor Hancock, who, for 
a season, was a member of his congregation. 
He was one of the twelve delegates from Boston 
in the convention which ratified the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, and he rendered effi- 
cient help in that almost equally divided assem- 
bly in securing a majority of nineteen votes for 
ratification, f 

But our brethren out of the ministry planned 
and toiled and suffered grandly in the cause of 
freedom. And conspicuously among this class 
of Baptists appears the name of 

^Sprague's Annals of the American Baptist Pulpit, p. 78. 
t Manning and Brown University, pp. 133, 404. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 49 

John Hart, a Signer of the Declaration of Incle- 

pendeiice. 

The father of Mr. Hart was a man- of cour- 
age and patriotism; he raised a company of 
volunteers; which he led to Quebec, and with 
them he fought bravely on the Plains of Abra- 
ham against the French. The son inherited his 
spirit, and was universally regarded as one of 
the best men in New Jersey. Ue was well in- 
formed on Colonial and European questions, and 
he thoroughly understood the inalienable rights 
of mankind. He was held in such high esteem 
that he was generally selected to settle the dis- 
putes of his neighbors, who spoke of him affec- 
tionately as " Honest John Hart." In the social 
relations of life he was a man of great modesty 
and benevolence, and his highest ambition on 
earth was to serve God and promote the best 
interests of his countrymen. He had no taste 
for political life, and in the conventions of his 
fellow-citizens he expressed himself hy brave 
deeds rather than eloquent speeches. Wlien he 
entered the Continental Congress'-' of 1774 he 

^'History of Independence Hall, by Belisle, Pliila., p. 250. 



50 BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION. 

was about sixty years of age. lie resigned from 
Congress in 1775, and became Vice-President of 
the Provincial Congress of New Jersey. He 
Avas again elected in 177G, and took his pLace 
among the patriots and heroes who sent forth 
the immortal Declaration. It was issued July 
4th, 177G. Wlien first published it had only 
the names of John Hancock as president and 
Charles Thompson as secretary. Two days 
before it was given to the world the British 
landed a powerful amiy on Staten Island, and 
to impart greater weight to the Declaration it 
was signed on the 2d*''' day of the month after 
its adoption hy all the members and circulated 
extensively throughout the colonies. Mr. Hart 
had passed beyond the age of ambition and 
vigorous activity, and the period of life when 
men voluntarily make sacrifices or even imperil 
their property or safety, but he considered noth- 
ing but his country's liberty. He owned a 
valualjle farm, grist, saw, and fulling mills; he 
had a wife and family whose happiness and 
security were dear to him ; his residence was on 

* Biography of the Sii,mers of the Decliiration of Independ- 
ence, Phila., 1831, III., 2oG. 




i'i i:!€K^ 



51 



52 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

the highway of the enemy and his signature 
was sure to bring down their vengeance in a 
week or two; he knew that everything which 
he owned except the soil would be destroyed, 
his dear ones scattered, and his life taken if by 
the providence of the Evil One he was captured, 
and yet he did not hesitate to sign the Declara- 
tion of Independence, though it might prove his 
own death-warrant, and though it could hardly 
fail to inflict the heaviest losses and the most 
painful sufferings on him and his. The enemy 
speedily found out the patriotism and the happy 
home of Mr. Hart. His children fled, his prop- 
erty was wasted, and though an old man 
heavily laden with the burden of years he was 
compelled to leave his residence and conceal 
himself. He was pursued with unusual fury 
and malice, and could not with safety sleep twice 
in the same place. One night he had the house 
of a dog'^ for his shelter and its owner for his 
companion. To add intensity to the bitterness 
of his persecutions he was driven from the couch 
of his dying wife, whose anguish he was not per- 

^ Historical Collections of Xew Jersey, p. 262, N. Y., 1847. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 53 

mitted to assuage. But the venerable patriot 
never despaired and never repented, though he 
saw the darkest days of the Revolution. His 
love of country and sufferings gave him the 
warmest fHace in the hearts of his fellow-citizens. 
In 177G he was elected Speaker of the House 
of Assembly ; he was re-elected to the same posi- 
tion in 1777, and in 1778 the same honor was 
conferred upon him.=*"' He built the Baptist 
Church t of Hopewell and gave it its burying- 
ground. In that edifice he and his flimily wor- 
shipped God till he rested from his earthly 
toils and entered upon the joys of the redeemed. 
John Hart, the Baptist, in brave deeds and 
saintly worth, left a name fit for the illustrious 
document that proclaimed to the world our 
national birth. He departed this life in 1780. 
A shaft of Quincy granite marks his grave at 
Hopewell, on which the following epitaph is cut : 

*Mulforcrs History of New Jersey, pp. 430, 444, 456, Cam- 
den, 1848. 

t The Book of the Signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, Phila., 1861, pp. 35, 36. 



54 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

[Front.) 

JOHN HART, 

A Signer of the Declaration of Independence 

Fro^i New Jersey, 

July 4th, 1776— died 1780. 

{Eight Side.) 

Erected by the State of New Jersey, 

By Act apjwoved Apn-il 5th, 1865. 

Joel Parker, Governor, 

Edward ^Y. Scudder, President of the Senate, 

Joseph T. Crowell, Speaker of the House, 

Jacob Weart, 
Charles A. Skillmak, 
Zephaniah Stout, 

Commissioners. 

[Left Side.) 

First Speaker of the Assembly, 

August 27tb, 1776, 

Member of the Committee of Safety, 

1775—1776. 

[Bear.) 
Honor the Patriot's Grave. ' 

It was dedicated on the 4th of July, 1865, on 
which occasion Governor Parker delivered an 
address commemorating his great worth. "^ 

* Brotberliead's edition of Sanderson's Signers, etc., p. 331, 
Phila., 1865, 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 55 

Colonel Joah Houghton 

ILid no sympathy with royalty, and no fear 
of danger. He had a strong mind, an inflexible 
will, and a courageous heart. He saw the 
path of duty in a moment, and was unusually 
prompt in carrying out his convictions. He 
was one of the first"^' men to advocate the calling 
of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, which 
overthrew the Colonial Government, and de- 
clared that " William Franklin (the royal gover- 
nor, a son of Benjamin Franklin) has discovered 
himself to be an enemy to the liberties of this 
country, and that measures ought to be imme- 
diately taken for securing his person, and that 
henceforth all payments of money to him on 
account of salary or otherwise should cease." f 
In pursuance of this resolution, Colonel Heard 
arrested Franklin, who was placed at the dis- 
posal of the Continental Congress, and by that 
body committed to the custody of Governor 
Trumbull, of Connecticut, and, in that State, 
Franklin remained a prisoner until the war was 

*Life of Dr. Cone, p. H, N". Y., 1S5G. 

fMulford's History of New Jersey, p. 41G, Camden, 1848. 



6 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 



ended.* When the State government was set 
up, Colonel Houghton was among the first mem- 
bers of the Assembly sent from Hunterdon 
County; and he received one of the earliest 
appointments as a field-officer in the Jersey 
troops raised for the defence of the United 
States. Colonel Houghton was in the Hopewell 
Baptist Meeting-house, at worship, when he 
received the first information of Concord and 
Lexington, and of the retreat of the British to 
Boston with such heavy loss. His great grand- 
son gives the following eloquent description of 
the way he treated the tidings : " Stilling the 
breathless messenger he sat quietly through the 
services, and when they were ended, he passed 
out, and mounting the great stone block in front 
of the meeting-house he beckoned to the people 
to stop. Men and women paused to hear, curious 
to know what so unusual a sequel to the service 
of the day could mean. At the first words a 
silence, stern as death, fell over all. The Sab- 
bath quiet of the hour and of the place was 
deepened into a terrible solemnity. He told them 
all the story of the cowardly murder at Lexing- 

^ Life of Lord Sterling, p. 121. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 57 

ton by the royal troops ; the heroic vengeance 
following hard upon it; the retreat of Percy; 
the gathering of the children of the Pilgrims 
round the beleagaered hills of Boston : then paus- 
ing, and looking over the silent throng, he said 
slowly : ' Men of New Jersey, the red coats are 
murdering our brethren of New England ! Who 
follows me to Boston?' and every man of that 
audience stepped out into line, and answered : 
^I!' There was not a coward nor a traitor in 
old Hopewell Baptist Meeting-house that day."'^ 
The annals of the American Eevolution cannot 
furnish in its long list of fearless deeds and 
glorious sacrifices a grander spectacle than this 
Sunday scene in front of the Baptist church at 
Hopewell. Joab Houghton's integrity, honesty 
of purpose, and military capacity, must have 
been of an unusual order to have secured for his 
appeal such a noble response. And the men 
who gave it must have been nurtured in the lap 
of liberty in childhood, and taught enthusiastic 
love for her principles in all subsequent years. 
But this was the spirit of American Baptists in 
the Revolution. At home from the army for 

*Life of Dr. Cone, pp. 11, 12, X. Y., 1856. 



58 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

a short time, during the darkest period of the 
struggle, he found the whole region around his 
dwelling overrun and plundered by the enemy. 
The able-bodied men were either away with 
Washington or hidden in places of security. No 
one ventured to resist the marauding bands of 
Hessians who were ready to seize the widow's 
mite, or the plate of the wealthj^ A large 
army was near at hand, making it almost certain 
death for those who should offer resistance unless 
they were stronger than the powerful foe. 
Houghton w^atched a detachment of these mili- 
tary robbers enter a house, and with a few 
neighbors he quietly seized the arms, which 
in their contempt for the people of the neigh- 
borhood they had stacked outside, and then he 
compelled them to deliver themselves up as 
prisoners ; and this almost in the very presence 
of an overwhelming British force, and when the 
entire population still living in this region was 
sunk in abject terror."^' 

Colonel Houghton was in the field during the 
entire war and rendered courageous help in 
many a bloody battle, and secured for himself 

* Historical Collections of New Jersey, p. 262, N. Y. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 59 

imperishable fame. He was an honored mem- 
ber of the BajDtist Church, of Hopewell, and 
grandfather of the late Spencer Houghton Cone, 
D.D., of New York. 

Jolin Brovm, 

Of Rhode Island, a brother of the celebrated 
Nicholas, after whom Brown University was 
named, was a Baptist, whose record is an honor 
to the denomination, and an American of whom 
every friend of liberty might be proud. He 
owned twenty vessels, everyone of which might 
be seized by the navy of the enemy, and yet, 
from the very hrst, he was a frank Revolu- 
tionist. When the First Baptist Church, of 
Providence, wished to erect their present edifice 
in 1774, John Brown was appointed "a com- 
mittee of one " to build it. And he reared for 
them a meeting-house eighty feet square, with a 
spire 19G feet high, at an expense of $25,000, 
when materials and labor were unusually cheap. 
The house is a handsome structure even at the 
present time ; but in that day it had few equals 
on the continent for size and beauty. Provi- 
dence then had a population of 4321, Mr. 




60 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

Brown was a man of magnificent plans, and 
he had the genius to carry them out with 
success.* 

John Brown might be said to have begun the 
Revolution himself. In 1772, a British armed 
schooner called the " Gaspee " came into Narra- 
gansett Bay to carry out orders from the British 
commissioners of customs, in Boston, w^ith a 
view to prevent violations of the revenue laws. 
The " Gaspee " was a continual annoyance to 
the mariners and ship-owaiers, with whose busi- 
ness she interfered. On the 9th of June, 1772, 
she ran aground on Namquit, below Pawtuxet. 
Mr. Brown heard of it, and he immediately 
ordered eight large boats to be placed in charge 
of Captain Abraham Whipple, one of his best 
ship-masters, and he put sixty-four armed men 
in them. At about 2 a.m., Mr. Brown and his 
boats reached the "Gaspee;" two shots were 
exchanged, one of which w^ounded Lieutenant 
Duddingston. " This was the first British blood 
shed in the war of Independence." The crew 
and officers left the " Gaspee " very speedily, and 
Whipple blew her up. Mr. Brown was the last 

* Manning and Brown University, pp. 227-229. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 61 

man on board/^' In Bartlett's Colonial Records, 
during four years, from the beginning of 1776, 
his name occurs in " important committees, and 
in connection with various public services 
twenty-six times; no other name has such 
frequent mention in Bartlett's volume." f John 
Brown was a brave, generous, and large-minded 
patriot, whose services were invaluable to his 
country in the hour of her great need. 

The Laymen Crowded the Ranks of the Army 
and Labored for the Triumph of the Revolution 
ivith all their might. 

And they earned for themselves a reputation 
for love of country and valor which will never 
die. And, in the peaceful scenes of domestic 
life, the churches labored to provide for the 
army and to plant the seeds of patriotism in 
hearts halting between their country and its 
enemies. And they cheered the brave men in 
arms, by sympathy with them in their trials, 
and rejoicings with them in their victories. 

John Adams, of Massachusetts, was, on some 

* Manning and Brown University, pp. 170, 171. 
tibid., p. 167. 



62 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

occasions, the bitterest enemy the Baptists had 
in Kevolutionary days, and yet he gives them 
considerable credit for bringing Delaware from 
the gulf of disloyalty, to the brink of which he 
declares "The missionaries of the London 
Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 
Foreign Parts " had brought her to the platform 
of patriotism.* 

On the 19th of October, 1781, the American 
army entered Yorktown, having received Corn- 
wallis and his troops as prisoners ; on the 2od, 
the Philadelphia Association was in session; 
that night the tidings of the great triumph came; 
the next morning at " sunrise " the Association 
met, and overwhelmed with the glorious news, 
praised God for the victory, and recorded their 
grateful feelings in appropriate resolutions.-)- To 
some Americans in Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey the capture of Cornwallis was a terrible 
blow : it meant the loss of everything, including 
country. But the oldest Baptist association in 
the land got up by sunrise to celebrate the best 

^Life and Works of John Adams, by Charles Francis 
Adams, X., 812. 
t Minutes of Philadelphia Association, p. 274. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 63 

news that had reached them for six long years 
— tidings for which their inmost souls blessed 
God. And this was the spirit of the whole 
Baptist people all over this broad land. 

In the Revolution some thougld the Baptists luere 
too Patriotic. 

Our brethren in the Revolution were so 
devoted to liberty, and as a result of this so 
warlike, that a man who believed in non-resist- 
ance could not stay among them. Martin Kauf- 
mun, a Baptist minister in Virginia, originally 
from the Mennonites, who still believed Avith 
them that all wars were sinful as well as all 
appeals to the courts of law, abandoned the 
Baptists and formed a little sect of his own, 
where only the friends of peace would meet. 
There is no evidence that Kaufmun was a Tory. 
Some sturdy patriots in the Society of Friends 
joined the Revolutionary army, and w^ere 
expelled by their respective meetings. After 
the war they formed the '' Church of the Free 
Quakers," wdiose ancient house of worship is now 
" The Apprentices' Library," at Fifth and Arch 
streets, in this city. Mr. Kaufmun reversed 



64 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

ft 

their position : he left a militant church to 
found an abode of peace.'*'- If our fathers erred 
in the struggles of the Revolution, it was in 
j)ossessing a superabundance of zeal in their 
country's cause. 

Baptists have Received the highest Commen- 
dations FOR their Patriotism. 

Thomas Jefferson was the soundest ex- 
ponder of true liberty whom God ever made ; 
endowed with rare mental power and full of 
ardor in the cause of freedom, he had ample 
ability to enable him to detect the lukewarm 
and discover the enthusiastic. Writing to the 
Baptist church, of Buck Mountain, Albemarle 
County, Virginia, neighbors of his, in reply to a 
congratulatory address which they had sent him, 
he says : " I thank you, my friends and neigh- 
bors, for your kind congratulations on my re- 
turn to my native home, and on the opportu- 
nities it w^ill give me of enjoying, amidst your 
affections, the comforts of retirement and rest. 
Your approbation of my conduct is the more 
valued as jon have best known me, and is an 



Semjile's History of the Yirginia Baptists, p. 188. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 65 

ample reward for any services I may have 
rendered. We have acted together from the 
origin to the end of a memorable Eevolution, 
and we have contributed, each in a line allotted 
us, our endeavors to render its issue a perma- 
nent blessing to our country. That our social 
intercourse may, to the evening of our days, be 
cheered and cemented by witnessing the freedom 
and happiness for which we have labored, will 
be my constant prayer. Accept the offering of 
my affectionate esteem and respect.""^ This 
letter was written in 1809. Jefferson's ojDinion 
of the Buck Mountain Baptists w^as exceedingly 
flattering to their patriotism. He well knew 
their love for experimental religion, with which 
he had no sympathy. From his correspondence 
it is evident that Jefferson was simpl}^ an 
advanced Unitarian, full of sensitiveness to 
slights on his heretical doctrines, and very 
earnest in advocating them ; and that he should 
w^rite such an epistle to a Baptist church, only 
shows that they abounded in their love of 
liberty. Jefferson had a special regard for 

"Jefferson's Complete Works, by Washington, K. Y., 
Till., 168. 



66 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

Baptists. The union between him and them 
was peculiar; he speaks in his letters with 
scorn sometimes of other denominations, but in 
a mass of them, which we have read, there is 
not a word unfriendly to Baptists. They loved 
liberty intensely, and so did he ; and this was 
the bond that united the sage of Monticello, and 
the followers of Roger Williams. In his com- 
plete works there are replies to congratulatory 
addresses from the Danbury"^ Baptist Associa- 
tion, the Baltimore and Ketocton Associations, 
and the representatives of six Baptist Associa- 
tions, met at Chesterfield, Ya., Nov. 21st, 1808. 
This last body was " The General Meeting " of 
the Baptists of Virginia, then representing a 
host ; to them he says : " In reviewing the his- 
tory of the times through which we have passed, 
no portion of it gives greater satisfaction than 
that which presents the efforts of the friends 
of religious freedom and the success with which 
they were crowned. We have shown, by fair 
trial, the great and interesting experiment 
whether freedom of religion is compatible with 
order in government and obedience to the laws. 

-^Complete AVoiks, by IVashington, INT. Y., VIII. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



67 



And we have experienced the quiet as well as 
the comfort which results from leaving one to 
profess freely and openly those principles of 
religion which are the inductions of his own 
reasOT."* Here the retiring President clearly 
tells these Baptists that they have been the 
successful friends of religious freedom, and that 
he and they together, and their friends and his, 
had swept away all laws that chained conscience, 
and put the amendment prohibitory of religious 
establishments in the Constitution. The Bap- 
tists loved Thomas Jefferson. The church at 
Cheshire, Mass., made a cheese, which weighed 
fourteen hundred and fifty pounds, and sent it to 
Washington to President Jefferson, in 1801, by 
the celebrated John Leland, their pastor, as an 
expression of the warm regard which they 
entertained for their great leader in freedom's 
battles. John Leland was a man of singular 
ability, independence, frankness, humor and 
piety. Listening to a sermon, in Virginia, on 
a very cold day, at the conclusion of which 
several persons were to be baptized^JiejMjm- 

*Wasliington's Complete Works o£ Jefferson, N. Y., 
VIII., 139. 



68 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

posed the well-known hymn^ beginning with 
the stanza : 

Christians, if your hearts are warm, 
Ice and snow can do no harm ; 
If by Jesus you are prized, 
Believe, arise, and be baptized.* 

Leland represented the opinions of Baptists 
on public questions better than any man living 
in his day, and he speaks of Jefferson as having 
•'justly acquired the title of the Apostle of 
Liberty;"-}- and when he attained the presidency, 
he describes him " as the brightest orb in the 
greatest orbit in America." J No language was 
too flattering for Revolutionary Baptists to apply 
to Jefli9rson, and he, with no love for other 
denominations except the sect of Dr. Priestly, 
cherished a warm regard for our fathers in the 
faith. Only two addresses from religious bodies 
in addition to those already named, one from 
the Methodist church in Pittsburg, and another 
from the church of the same denomination, in 
New London, Conn., are noticed in his " Com- 
plete Works." 

Howison, the historian of Virginia, says : " No 

* Leland's Works, p. 28. f Ibid. , p. 36. % Ibid., p. 255. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. G9 

class of the people of America were more devoted 
advocates of the principles of the Revolution, 
none were more willing to give their money 
and goods to their country, none more prompt 
to march to the field of battle, and none more 
heroic in actual conflict than the Baptists of 
Virginia." '^ 

Washington pays a glorious tribute to the 
Baptists for their Revolutionary sympathies and 
deeds. In his reply to the " Committee of the 
Virginia Baptist Churches," which expressed to 
him grave doubts about the security of religious 
liberty under the new Constitution, a part of 
which has been already quoted, he says : "I 
recollect, with satisfaction, that the religious 
society, of which you are a member, has been, 
throughout America, uniformly and almost 
unanimously the firm friends of civil liberty, 
and the persevering promoters of our glorious 
Revolution. I cannot hesitate to believe that 
they will be the faithful supporters of a free, yet 
efficient, general government." f With such a 

*IIo\vison's History of Virginia, II., 170. 
t Writings of George Washington, by Sparks, XII., 154-5, 
Boston. 



70 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

testimony from the noblest patriot of the human 
race, we may well bless God for our religious 
ancestry, and pray to him earnestly for grace, 
that we may never degenerate in piety or 
patriotism. 

Few Tories can be found among the Bap- 
tists OF THE KeYOLUTION. 

When the Legislature of Massachusetts, in 
1778, forbade the return of 311 public enemies 
to their government, the historian, Backus, who 
w^as acquainted with the facts, declares that not 
one of them was a Baptist.* 

The English Government gave twelve million 
pounds to compensate American Tories, f and 
we doubt if one dollar of this money ever went 
into the pocket of a true Baptist. In his brief 
biography of 3,200 Tories, given by Sabine in 
his " History of American Loyalists," we find 
forty-six clergymen of one denomination, six of 
another, three of another, and but one of the 
Baptist faith. This minister was Morgan 
Edwards, a man of great ability and general 

* Backus' Church History, Phila., p. 196. 

t History of England by Hume, Smollett and Farr, III., 174. 



AMERICAN KEVOLUTION. 71 

worth, but eccentric. He had a son, an officer 
in the British service, whose position is charged 
with helping to bhnd his father s eyes to the 
glories of patriotism. He gave up the public 
duties of the ministry while the war lasted, and 
conducted himself with so much moderation as 
to save himself from exile during and after the 
Revolutionary struggle.* Edwards was about 
to be arrested by Colonel Miles, a member of 
the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, but he 
was notified of his danger and left this city 
immediately. It is gratifying to know that the 
most rigid scrutiny cannot discover a second 
Tory among the Baptist ministers of America. 
Sabine represents Christopher Sower, of Ger- 
mantown, in this State, as a German Baptist 
minister. Sower was a printer and book- 
seller, and unbound Bibles belonging to him 
furnished cartridge paper for the patriotic troops 
at the battle of Germantown. He is said to 
have lost $30,000 through indignation inspired 
by his disloyalty in the American army.t He 
was not a Baptist, but a memberof^pecti^^ 

-x-The American Loyalists, by Sabine, i-. 271, Boston, 18i7. 
tibia., p. C27. 



72 



THE BAPTISTS AND THE 



German commimitj that has no reLations with 
our denomination. There may be some Baptist 
laymen hidden in Sabine's long list ; it would 
be remarkable if there were not two or three. 
But we do not know of a single one. Brethren 
of other creeds fought bravely for our common 
freedom, and we shall not object to any amount 
of glory they may desire to claim, so long as 
they permit our Baptist fathers to enjoy the 
position which their unsurpassed fidelity and 
heroism justly earned. 

In the work of the Tory refugee, Judge 
Curwen, there are the names of 92G persons 
who fled from Boston, when General Howe 
evacuated it and sailed for Halifax ; there are 
also the names of many others who were exiled 
by State laws. Committees of Safety, or their 
own well-grounded ai^prehensions ; among these 
persons were governors, judges, subordinate colo- 
nial officials, eighteen* clergymen, and people 
of all ranks and occupations. This venerable, 
gossipping ex-judge of New England, while he 
lived on British alms, wrote a somewhat copi- 

*The Writings of Washington, by Sparks, vol. III., p. 325, 
Boston, 1834. 



AMERICAN KEVOLUTION. 73 

ous account of the persons and objects that 
claimed his attention. Science, literature, war, 
politics, theatres, and theology are frequently 
discussed by the fugitive from Salem. But it 
is not known that a single Tory Baptist has a 
place in his numerous pages; nor is there even 
the hint of a suspicion that one of tliem belonged 
to our ancient and honored denomination.* 

It ^as difficult for the Baptists in the Revo- 
lution TO THROW AWAY THE PROTECTION OF 

England. 

The sovereign was a refuge to the Dissenters 
in any Colony where church and state were 
united. Time and again the king, in council, 
had disannulled persecuting laws and released 
our fathers from odious oppressions. The first 
Baptist church in Boston, after assembling for 
years in private dwellings, erected a meeting- 
house in 1677, which was closed by order of 
the General Court of Massachusetts; after some 
time they ventured to use it again, when the 
doors were nailed up and a paper posted on 
them which read: "All person^^ir^to^e 

1^^^^^^,^^n^^J^v\ and Letters, p. 448, Boston, 1S64. 



74 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

notice, that by order of the court the doors of 
this house are shut up, and that they are pro- 
hibited from holding any meeting therein, or to 
open the doors thereof without license from 
authority till the general court take further 
order, as they will answer the contrary at their 
peril." =^^ This was a wicked outrage, and on an 
appeal being made to the king, in council, he 
immediately rebuked the authors of this base 
act, and commanded that liberty of conscience 
should be given by the Congregationalists to 
Episcopalians and Dissenters.f The town of 
Ashfield, Mass., was settled by Baptists, and 
when it had a few Pedobaptist families in it 
they built a Presbyterian church and settled a 
minister, and then laid a tax upon the land to 
meet the expenses of both. The Baptists re- 
fused to pay the church bills of their neighbors, 
to which the constable so unceremoniously in- 
vited their attention ; immediately the best por- 
tion of the cultivated lands in the town were 
seized and sold for trifling sums to pay their 
ecclesiastical dues; the house and garden of 

* Hildreth's History of the United States, I^. Y., I., 497-9. 
t Backus' Church History, Philadelphia, p. 121. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. '^^ 

one man was taken from him, and the young 
orchards, the meadows and cornfields of others, 
and the grave-yard of the Baptists was actually 
among the lots disposed of. These properties 
realized onlv £35.10, and they were worth _ 
£363 8 Three hundred and ninety-five acres 
were 'unjustly seized at this time from their 
owners. The orthodox minister was one of the 
purchasers. This was but the first payment, 
and a couple of others were coming. This pro- 
ceeding occurred in 1770, just six years before 
the Declaration of Independence.* An appeal 
was made to the king, in council, and the law 
authorizing this civil proceeding was " disan- 
nulled "f In 1691, when that illustrious Hol- 
lander, William III., sat on the throne of Britam, 
he granted a new charter to Massachusetts, in 
which he increased their privileges, but took 
away some which they had previously enjoyed. 
He expressly declared that no law should be 
made without the consent of the governor, 
whom the crown appointed, and having re- 
ceived his approbation it couldj^e^isan^^ 

* Minutes of the Philadelphia Association L. 116. 
t Benedict's History of the Baptists, p. 4.0. 



76 BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION". 

at any time within three years after it was 
enacted. William, who was a tolerant and en- 
lightened king, intended to stop Puritan perse- 
cutions in Massachusetts, and he was successful 
for full fifty years." '^ On many occasions the 
kings of Britain stopped Colonial persecutions 
and sheltered Baptists and Quakers from the 
wrath of their American neighbors. It was a 
serious thing for our Baptist fathers to throw 
away this refuge, this last hope in many a 
gloomy day, and trust their religious rights to 
men who were executing laws full of tyranny 
up to the commencement of the Revolution. 
And it was a little difficult to join the same 
military company with the tax-gatherer who 
had robbed you by due process of law, the con- 
stable who had lodged you or your widowed 
sister or mother in prison because conscience for- 
bade the payment of a tax to support religion, 
or the jailer who had put you in the stocks or 
scourged you for preaching Jesus, or with the 
justice who had condemned you. But Roger 
Williams, a short time after his banishment 
among the savages, discovered that the Pequot 

* Backus' Church Ilistoiy, p. 12G. 




ROGER WILLIAMS. 



77 



78 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

Indians were trying to get the MohegaPs and 
Narragansetts to unite witli them in extermi- 
nating the Massachusetts Colonists, and know- 
ing the immense power of these tribes in that 
day, he at once notified his former persecutors 
of their danger, and then having successfully 
used his efforts to throw the whole burden of 
fighting the English on the Pequots alone, he 
saved the men and their wives and their chil- 
dren who had no mercy on him.* And like 
the great founder of Rhode Island, our Baptist 
fathers, in Revolutionary days, forgave their per- 
secutors, and in view of great dangers threaten- 
ing the liberties and lives of their countrymen, 
stood knee to knee and shoulder to shoulder 
with patriots of loving and persecuting ante- 
cedents, and never gave up the conflict until the 
flag of freedom floated in undisturbed majesty 
over the entire territory claimed by the thirteen 
Colonies. 



* Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, 11., 
ol9. 



AMEEICAN REVOLUTION. 79 



The baptists ayere chiefly instrumental in 
RESCUING Virginia from the sceptre of 
Britain. 

The leading men of Virginia were the de- 
scendants of high-born English families, whose 
.aiding principle for centuries had been loyalty 
to the king. Treason to one of them was the 
xnost infamous crime. They were rigid Episco- 
palians, and so was the king of England a,nd 
inost of his influential subjects in the British 
islands. The rectors of Virginia were native 
Englishmen,* many of whom were specially ac- 
ceptable to the gay young Virginians because 
they frequented the race course, betted at cards, 
and rattled dice like experts. One of them was 
president of a jockey club, and another fought a 
duel There could not be a more perfect con- 
trast between a large majority of these men and 
their successors in the Episcopal Church of 
Virginia to-day. But as they naturally con- 
formed to the tastes and habits of their people, 
and as they wereboimdtoEnsl^^ 
-Tn^:^.m.io.j of Yirgiuia, II., 159-60, Richmond, 
1848 



80 



THE BAPTISTS AND THE 



cation and blood, they were fitted to streno-then 
the ties uniting the Old Dominion to the mother 
country. 

The planter was by position and hereditary 
inclination what in Scotland is called a laird a 
^nmor noble who controlled the dependent por- 
tion of the white population by his wealth 
and his slaves by force and kindness mixed to- 
gether; he was born to rule, and he was rei^arded 
with feudal reverence from his earliest conscious 
years. The toiling New England farmer, or 
the cultivators of the soil in the Middle Colo- 
nies, might fight for freedom because they lived 
among equals, but the great planters of Vir- 
ginia were the natural friends of the mightier 
lords of England, and of the British kino- 
They clung to Charles I., who was as unscru- 
pulous a tyrant as ever oppressed any people. 
He levied taxes without the consent of any 
representative body of legislators, and in shame- 
ess violation of law, and enforced his decrees 
by that Tudor and Stuart inquisition, the Star 
Chamber. But Virginia adhered to his cause 
and '-enacted a declaration that they were bom 
under a monarchy, and would never degenerate 



\ 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 81 

from the condition of their birth by being 
subject to any other government." After the 
king was executed they acknowledged his son, 
and retained Governor Berkeley, with a commis- 
sion from Prince Charles.'^ And though Mary- 
land recognized the authority of the British 
Commonwealth, and Massachusetts bowed to its 
supremacy and prohibited all intercourse with 
Virginia tillf she renounced the Stuarts, it 
required a portion of a powerful British fleet 
sent out to subdue the Colonies, under Captain 
Dennis, to constrain Virginia to acknowledge 
the British government, and remove Sir Wil- 
liam Berkeley.J In 1660, Governor Mathews 
of Virginia died, and the people insisted on 
Berkeley, who was still in the Old Dominion, 
resuming the office of governor. But he de- 
clined to accept it unless they united with him 
in recognizing Charles II. "This," says Bev- 
erly, "was their dearest wish." Sir William 
Berkeley, while the king was still in exile, 

^ Howe's Virginia Historical Collections, p. 132, Charles- 
ton, 1846. 
tibid., p. 63. 
Jllowison's History of Virginia, I., 298, Phila., 1843. 



82 



THE BAPTISTS AND THE 



united with the Virginians in forthwith pro- 
daiming " Charles IL, king of England, Scot- 
land, Ireland, and Virginia, and he caused all 
processes to be issued in his name. Thus his 
majesty was actually king in Virginia before he 
was in England." * The Virginians were surely 
loyal to royalty in these proceedings, but no 
one can detect any love for hberty in them. 
The Stuarts that sat on the throne of England 
were destitute of all love for freedom, and in no 
deed showed even the faintest regard for it. 

When Patrick Henry introduced his ^vi^ cele- 
brated Resolutions into the Virginia Assembly 
in 1765 in connection with the Stamp Act, the 
men of influence in that body were hostile to 
any opposition to that tyrannical measure, and 
were going to let it become a law without resist- 
ance of any kind.f 

Unaided, Henry made his bold assault on the 
usurpation of the British Parliament in his 
twenty-eighth year, and during his first session 
in the legislature. His fifth resolution was: 



* Howe's Virginia Historical Collections, p. 133, Charles- 
ton, 1846. 

t Campbell's History of Virginia, p. 541, Pliila., 1860. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 83 

" That the General Assembly of this Colony has 
the sole right and power to lay taxes and im- 
positions upon its inhabitants, and that every 
attempt to vest such power in any person or per- 
sons whatsoever other than the General Assem- 
bly aforesaid, has a manifest tendency to destroy 
British as well as American freedom." After 
the amendment of the fourth resolution, the first 
four were passed by small majorities. But the 
fifth was carried by but a single vote, and yet it 
was only the doctrine of John Hampden and the 
Long Parliament and of the American Revolu- 
tion. "Speaker Robinson," says Campbell, "Pey- 
ton Randolph, Richard Bland, Edmund Pendle- 
ton, George Wythe, and all the leaders of the 
House and proprietors of large estates made a 
strennous resistance. Mr. Jefferson says : The 
resolutions of Henry were opposed by Robinson 
and all the cyphers of the aristocracy."* 

In a speech of wonderful eloquence and power, 
Henry advocated these resolutions, in which he 
used the words : " Tarquin and Caesar had each 
his Brutus, Charles I. his Cromwell, and George 
in." — " Treason ! " shouted the speaker ; " trea- 

* Campbell's History of Virginia, pp. 541-2. 



84 



THE BAPTISTS AND THE 



son, treason/' was echoed round the house, while 
Henry, fixing his eyes on the speaker, continued 
without faltering,— -^ may profit by their exam- 
ple." ^-^ The next day the men who voted for 
the fifth resolution, alarmed for their presumptu- 
ous deed, actually had it expunged from the 
journals of the House.f 

In Connecticut, the stamp-officer, Ingersoll, 
was taken in charge by five hundred men on 
horseback, each bearing a long white pole, from 
which the bark had just been stripped, and by 
these five hundred arguments they persuaded 
him to resign, and to throw his hat into the air 
and shout three times, " Liberty and property." J 
Elsewhere vigorous opposition was shown to the 
execution of the despotical Stamp Act. But the 
leaders of the powerful families of Virginia 
denounced Henry's fifth resolution, containing 
the doctrine of the American Revolution : No 
taxation without representation; which was in- 
tended to rebuke the authors of the Stamp Act; 
with boisterous indignation they made their 

"Bancroft's History of the United States, Y., 277. 

t Ilowison^s History of Virginia, II., 52, Eichmond, 1848. 

: Bancroft's History of the United States, V., 818-320. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



85 



house ring with cries of " Treason," when he 
nobly advocated his glorious resolution, and 
they succeeded, the very next day, in alarming 
those who voted for it, and in securing its 
erasure from the records of the House. 

How, then, did Virginia take her place in the 
list of States that fought so bravely for freedom ? 
If, just ten years before the Revolution, her^ 
foremost citizens were ^^strenuously" opposed 
to the doctrine that there should be no taxes, 
without the consent of those who were to pay 
them, it is a matter of great interest to know 
how they changed their minds. 

In Great Britain, perhaps forty years ago, 
both houses of the British Praliament were 
filled with land-owners who had legal possession 
of, probably, four-fifths of the soil in England, 
Ireland, and Scotland. They had made laws to 
keep out foreign grain, until wheat reached a 
certain price in their own markets; and this 
price would enable them to secure a high rent 
for their lands. Corn laws were the most im- 
portant articles in the political creed of a major- 
ity of the aristocracy of Great Britain, and they 
were determined not to repeal them. The 



86 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

people of England took a different view of the 
matter, and felt that they had to pay an extra 
price for every loaf to secure for the landlord an 
extravagant rent; and they commenced to 
agitate against the corn laws ; they held meet- 
ings in every direction, attended by 50,000, 
70,000 and 100,000 men, many of whom were 
often hungry ; and Sir Kobert Peel, a warm 
advocate of the corn laws, at last, was persuaded 
that he and his Tory friends must repeal those 
laws, lest the British constitution should be 
annulled, and the throne overturned ; and it is 
more than probable that loyalty to Britain, in 
Virginia, was chiefly destroyed in the same way. 
In 1774, according to Howison, "The Bap- 
tists increased on every side ; if one preacher 
was imprisoned, ten arose to take his place ; if 
one congregation was dispersed, a larger assem- 
bled on the next opportunity. The influence 
of the denomination was strong among the com- 
mon people, and was beginning to be felt in 
high places. In two points they were dis- 
tinguished : first, in their love of freedom ; and, 
secondly, in their hatred of the church establish- 
ment. They hated, not its ministers, but its 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 87 

principles. To a man they were united in the 
resolve never to relax their efforts until it was 
utterly destroyed."'^ These religious descend- 
ants of men who had suffered for truth in every 
country of Europe, and in every age of persecu- 
tion, since Stephen's blood was shed, were 
among the most fearless heroes and earnest 
men the world ever saw. They would journey 
any distance, and make any sacrifice of time, 
property, or liberty, to spread their principles ; 
and, though at first treated with insults by the 
masses, they had now secured so many of the 
common people in their ranks, and the remain- 
der had become so convinced of the justice of 
their views about a free state and a free 
church, that, practically, the Baptists controlled 
the larger number of white Virginians, whom 
they led directly into the Revolution ; for, to a 
man, they were in favor of it. At the Revolu- 
tion, according to Jefferson, two-thirds of the 
people were Dissenters ;f these were composed 
chiefly of Baptists and Presbyterians ; but while 
the Presbyterians had men of eminent worth, 

*Howison's History of Yirginia, II., 170, Richmond, 1848.. 
t Jefferson On the State of Virginia, p. 169, Richmond. 



88 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

they were few in comparison with the Baptists. 
Patrick Henry found them his lifelong friends, 
and he would journey any distance to serve 
them. He rode fifty miles, to Fredericksburg, to 
be present at the trial of John Waller, Lewis 
Craig, and James Childs, who were indicted for 
the crime of " preaching the gospel contrary to 
law," whose acquittal he speedily secured. "^ " In 
their efforts to avail themselves of the Tolera- 
tion Act," says Campbell, " they found Patrick 
Henry ever ready to step forward in their 
behalf: and he remained through life their 
unwavering friend." f And they applauded all 
his eloquence for patriotism, and spread over 
the whole Colony until their country became 
uncomfortable to Tory Virginians, and the 
repeated aggressions of the British made it 
needful to give up Virginia or their political 
opinions; and the majority of the planters 
became the friends of a free country. 

Had not the Baptists planted their love of 
liberty in the hearts of the common j^eople of 
Virginia, had they left them to the teachings of 

^ Howison's History of Virginia, p. 168, Richmond, 1848. 
t History of Virginia, Pliila., 1860, p. 555. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 89 

Tory rectors from British universities, and lairds 
educated in English schools, the descendants of 
the men who lamented the death of Charles I., 
and resisted the authority of the Parliament till 
its fleet compelled their obedience, some of 
whom were the very men who expunged Patrick 
Henry's fifth resolution from the journals of the 
House of Assembly, it is more than probable 
would have kept Virginia loyal to England 
in the Kevolutionary struggle, and if she 
had been, every Southern Colony would have 
stood by her side. And, if the struggle had been 
confined to New England, without Washington 
on Dorchester Heights, or warm wishes and 
material encouragements from southern com- 
munities, however bravely our eastern friends 
might have fought, and they showed themselves 
men of valor in the field, it would have ended 
speedily, and most probably in a torrent of 
Massachusetts blood vainly shed. 

Without the Baptists of Virginia, the genius 
and glory of Washington might have been 
buried in the quiet home of an almost unknown 
Virginian planter. The English might not 
have had to evacuate Boston; our country 



I 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 91 

might have been still in Colonial bondage with 
ten millions of j^eople, and no great cities ; and 
instead of being the refuge and admiration of 
all nations, we might have been an obscure and 
feeble section of a great transatlantic empire. 
And we should not then have had a glorious 
Centennial. 

Baptists were Influential in Securing the 
Adoption of the Constitution of the United 
States. 

It is a matter of surprise to-day that the wis- 
dom of this instrument was ever doubted, or 
that it should ever have been opposed by any 
number of inteUigent and patriotic men. The 
two great States that supported the Revolution 
were nearly equally divided about the Constitu- 
tion ; and some of the best men in these powerful 
centres of political life regarded it with unmixed 
alarm, and resisted it with all their influence 
and eloquence. 

In Massachusetts, the Convention called to 
ratify the Constitution assembled on the 9th of 
January, 1788. It was composed of nearly four 
hundred members. It possessed much of the 



^2 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

intellect and the patriotism of the State. The 
parties for and against the Constitution were 
about equal. The debates lasted for a month, 
and the contest was carried on with great 
earnestness. The entire United States took the 
deepest interest in the deliberations. It was 
universally felt, as Dr. Manning expressed it, 
that "Massachusetts was the hinge on which 
the whole must turn," and that if she rejected 
the Constitution it would be discarded in the 
other States. The Baptists lield the balance of 
power in the Convention, and thej were gener- 
ally opposed to the Constitution in Massachu- 
setts. The Baptist delegates were chiefly 
ministers who had the liighest regard for Dr. 
Manning. And he, fully convinced that noth- 
ing but the new Constitution could save the 
country from anarchy, spent two weeks in 
attendance upon the Convention, and he and 
Dr. Stillman exerted themselves to the utmost 
to persuade their brethren to support the Con- 
stitution. With the Rev. Isaac Backus, the fear- 
less friend of the Baptist cause, and of liberty 
of conscience, they failed, but they met with 
success in other cases. And the Constitution 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



93 



was adopted by a majority of nineteen votes. 
There were 187 yeas and 168 nays on the hist 
day of the session, and before '' the final question 
was taken, Governor Hancock, the president, 
invited Dr. Manning to close the solemn con- 
vocation with thanksgiving and prayer." Dr. 
Manning addressed the Deity in a spirit glowing 
with devotion, and with such lofty patriotism 
that every heart was filled with reverence for 
God and admiration for his servant. And such 
an effect was produced by this prayer that, had 
it not been for the "popularity of Dr. Stillman, 
the rich men of Boston would have built a 
church for Dr. Manning."^ There is a strong 
probability that the Baptists of the Conven- 
tion would have followed Isaac Backus, and 
changed the insignificant majority into a small 
minority, if it had not been for Manning and 

Stillman. 

In Virginia, the opposition to the Constitution 
was led by more popular men ; but the parties, 
otherwise, were about equal in strength. The 
Convention met in Richmond, in June, 1788. 
The most illustrious men in the State were in 

^Manning and Brown University, pp. 103-4, Boston, 1864. 



94 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

it. Patrick Henry spoke against the Constitu- 
tion with a vehemence never surpassed hy him- 
self on any occasion in his whole life, and with 
a power that was sometimes overwhelming. 
Once, while this matchless orator was address- 
ing the Convention, a wild storm broke over 
Richmond ; the heavens were ablaze with light- 
ning, the thunder roared, and the rain came 
down in torrents ; at this moment Henry seemed 
to see the anger of heaven threatening the State, 
if it should consummate the guilty act of adoj)t- 
ing the Constitution, and he invoked celestial 
witnesses to view and compassionate his dis- 
tracted country in this grand crisis of her his- 
tory. And such was the effect of his speech on 
this occasion, that the Convention immediately 
dispersed.'^ The Convention, when the final 
vote on ratification was taken, only gave a ma- 
jority of ten in favor of the Constitution. 
Eighty-nine cast their votes for it, and seventy- 
nine against -j- it. James Madison possessed the 
greatest influence of any man in the Conven- 

^Howison's History of Virginia, II., 326, 327, S32. 
t Howe's Yirginia Historical Collections, p. 124, Charles- 
ton, 184G, 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 95 

tion ; 'had he not been there, Patrick Henry 
would have carried his opposition triumphantly. 
And Madison was there by the generosity of 
John Leland, the well-known and eccentric 
Baptist minister. Madison remained in Phila- 
delphia three months, with John Jay and Alex- 
ander Hamilton, preparing the articles which 
now make up " the Federalist ; " this permitted 
Henry and others to secure the public attention 
in Virginia, and, in a large measure, the public 
heart. Henry's assertion, that the new Consti- 
tution " squinted towards monarchy," was 
eagerly heard and credited by many of the best 
friends of freedom; and when Madison came 
home he found Leland a candidate for the 
county of Orange, the constituency which he 
wished to represent, with every prospect of 
success, for Orange was chiefly a Baptist county. 
Mr. Madison spent half a day with John Leland, 
and the result of this interview was that Leland 
withdrew and exerted his whole influence in 
favor of Madison, who was elected to the Con- 
vention, and, after sharing in its fierce debates, 
he was just able to save the Constitution of the 
United States. In a eulogy pronounced on 

9 



96 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

James Madison, by J. S. Barbour, of Virginia, 
in 1857, he said " That the credit of adopt- 
ing the Constitution of the United States j)rop- 
erlj belonged to a Baptist clergyman, formerly 
of Virginia, named Leland : ^ If,' said he, ' Madi- 
son had not been in the Virginia Convention, 
the Constitution would not have been ratified, 
and, as the approval of nine States was necessary 
to give effect to this instrument, and as Virginia 
was the ninth State, if it had been rejected by 
her the Constitution would have failed (the 
remaining States following her example), and it 
Avas through Elder Leland's influence that Madi- 
son was elected to that convention.""^ It is 
unquestionable that Mr. Madison was elected 
through the efforts and resignation of John 
Leland, and it is all but certain that that act 
gave our country its famous Constitution. 

*Sprague's Annals of the American Baptist Pulpit, p. 179. 



american revolution. 97 

Baptists were the Chief Instruments in com- 
pleting THE Constitution of the United 
States, the Charter of Revolutionary 
Liberty, by adding the Amendment Secur- 
ing full Religious Freedom. 

The first amendment to the United States 
Constitution was adopted in 1789, the year it 
went into operation. It reads : " Congress shall 
make no law respecting an establishment of 
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, 
or abridging the freedom of speech or of the 
press, or the rights of the people peaceably to 
assemble and to petition the Government for a 
redress of grievances." The first clause of this 
amendment occupies properly its prominent 
place in that addition to the Constitution. 
Without it the remaining parts would have 
appeared as lacking in seriousness. The idea 
that free speech, a free press, a free discussion 
of grievances and the right of petition were in 
danger in a country just victoriously emerging 
from a protracted war in defence of Liberty, 
could not be deliberately entertained by reflect- 
ing persons ; and yet, when religious freedom is 
to receive Constitutional protection^ these other 



98 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

links in the chain of liberty are appropriately 
joined to it. But freedom of conscience was 
in legal bondage, in 1789, and its friends had 
too much cause to be alarmed for its safety. 
An absolute necessity rested upon them to 
deliver religion from the tyrannical enactments 
which then fettered her, and by Constitutional 
prohibition guard her from slavery in the future. 
The passage of this amendment by Congress 
and the Legislatures ultimately but indirectly 
destroyed the union between Church and State 
in the United States. 

But suppose it had not been adopted ; Massa- 
chusetts might have had her State Church to- 
day, and her citizens rotting in prison because 
they could not conscientiously pay a church 
tax ; and any State might have established the 
Episcopal Church and then committed Baptists 
or other ministers to prison, as they did in 
Virginia down to the Revolution. And Congress 
might have decreed that the Catholic Church 
was the religious fold of the nation, and might 
have levied taxes to support her clergy, and 
made laws to give secular power to her cardinals, 
archbishops, bishops and pjriests over our schools. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 99 

religious opinions and personal freedom. With 
the amendment we have been educated to 
practise universal religious freedom ; without it 
sacerdotal tyranny might have destroyed all our 
liberty. The grandest feature of our Constitution 
is the first clause of the first amendment. The 
Baptists have always claimed that the credit for 
this amendment belongs chiefly to them. It is in 
strict accordance with their time-honored maxim : 
The major part shall rule in civil things only. 

Where could it have come from? In the 
Kevolution and for a few years after there were 
two great centres of political influence in our 
country, around which the other States moved 
with more or less interest — Massachusetts and 
Virginia. Freedom of conscience could not 
come from Massachusetts ; she was wedded to a 
State reUgion in 1789, which defied any divorc- 
ing agency to create a separation. Just ten 
years before, she adopted her new Constitution, 
and to secure an article in it giving legal support 
to Congregational ministers, John Adams, her 
favorite son, and the future President of the 
United States, accused the Baptists of sending 
a delegate to Philadelphia to break up the Con- 



100 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

tineiital Congress by creating dissensions about 
State taxes for ministers. And^ after exciting 
the indignation of the Convention against the 
Baptists for plotting such a calamity, he repre- 
sented them as the great advocates of the heresy 
of separating Church and State, and as the par- 
ties to be benefited by this departure from the 
ways of their fathers ; and through this odious 
misrepresentation Adams had no trouble in 
fastening the Church to the State, as in the 
good old Puritan times. And this tie only 
perished in 1834.'^ Writing to Benjamin Kent, 
he saj' s : " I am for the most liberal toleration 
of all denominations, but I hope Congress will 
never meddle with religion further than to say 
their own prayers. . . . Let every Colony 
have its oion reUgion icithou t m olesta tionJ'-f T h at 
is, from Congress ; he wished every Colony to 
have its own establislied church without molesta- 
tion, if it desired such an institution. He un- 
justly charged Israel Pemberton, a Quaker, 
whom, with the Baptists and other Friends, the 

* Backus' Cburch History, Pluladelpliia, p. 197. 
tLife and Works of John Adams, by Charles Francis 
Adams, IX., 402. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 101 

Massachusetts delegates met, during the sessions 
of the first Continental Congress, with an effort 
to destroy the union and labors of Congress, 
because he j)lead for the release of Baptists and 
Quakers imprisoned in Massachusetts for not 
paying the ministers' tax, and for the repeal 
of their oppressive laws. And John Adams 
actually argued that it was against the con- 
sciences of the people of his State to make any 
change in their laws about religion, even though 
others might have to suffer in their estates or 
by imprisonment to satisfy Mr. Adams and his 
conscientious friends. And he declared that 
they might as well thhik they could change the 
movements of the heavenly bodies as alter the 
religious laws of Massachusetts."' This was the 
spirit of New England when the first amend- 
ment was proposed, except among the Baptists 
and the little community of Quakers. Thomas 
Jefferson, w^riting to Dr. Rush, says : " There 
was a hope confidently cherished, about A. D. 
1800, that there might be a State Church 
throughout the United States, and this expecta- 

*Life and Works of John Adams, by Charles Francis 
Adams, vol. II., 399. 



102 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

tion was specially cherished by Episcopalians 
and Congregationalists." * This was the senti- 
ment of not a few New England Pedobaptists, 
and the hope of the remains of the Episcopal 
Church in the South. Massachusetts and her 
allies had no love for the first amendment. 

It came from Virginia, and chiefly from Bap- 
tists of the Old Dominion. The ^^ Mother of 
Presidents" was the mother of the glorious 
amendment. In 1776 the first Eepublican 
Legislature of Virginia convened, and after a 
violent contest, daily renewed, from the 11th of 
October to the 5 th of December, the Acts of Par- 
liament were repealed which rendered any form 
of worship criminal. Dissenters were exempted 
from all taxes to support the clergy, and the 
laws were suspended which compelled Episcopa- 
lians to support their own church. But it was 
the pressure of Dissenters without that forced 
this legislation on the Assembly, for a majority 
of the members were Episcopalians.^ While 
this act relieved Baptists, the unrejDealed com- 

* Memoirs, Correspondence, etc., Charlottesville, 1829, 
III., 341. 
tibid., T., 32. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 103 

mon law still punished with dismissal from all 
offices for the first ofience, those who denied 
the Divine existence, or the Trinity, or the 
truth of Christianity ; and for the second, the 
transgressor should he rendered incapable of 
suing or of acting as guardian, administrator, X)r 
executor, or of receiving a legacy, and, in addi- 
tion, should be imprisoned for three years/^ 
These persecuting laws were not repealed till 
1785. The tithe law, after being agitated fre- 
quently in every session and annually sus- 
pended, was repealed in 1779. The Presby- 
terians and Baptists were the outside powers 
that swept away the State Church of Virginia. 

After tithes ceased to be collected, a scheme 
known as the "Assessment" was extensively 
discussed in Virginia by Episcopalians and 
others. The assessment required every citizen 
to pay tithes to support his minister, no matter 
what his creed. The Episcopalians warmly ad- 
vocated the assessment. The united clergy of 
the Presbyterian church petitioned for it,f though 

* Jefferson's Notes on tlie State of Virginia, Eichmoncl, 
1853, p. 169. 
t Rives' Life and Times of James Madison, I., 601-2. 



104 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

many of their people disliked and denounced it. 
Patrick Henry aided it with all the power of 
his eloquence;'*" Richard Henry Lee, the most 
polished orator in the country, John Marshall, 
the future Chief- Justice of the United States, 
and George Washington himself advocated it.f 
The Baptists directed their whole forces against 
it, and poured petitions into the legislature for its 
rejection. The following lines accompanied one 
of the Baptist petitions ; they Avere addressed : 
" To the Honorable General Assembly," as 

THE HUMBLE PETITION OF A COUNTRY POET. 

Now liberty is all the plan, 
The chief pursuit of every man, 
Whose heart is right, and fills the mouth 
Of patriots all, from north to south ; 
May a poor bard, from bushes sprung, 
Address your honorable House 
And not your angry passions rouse. 

Hark ! for a while your business stop ; 
One word into your ears I'll drop : 
No longer spend your needless pains, 
To mend and polish o'er our chains. 
But break them oif before you rise, 
Nor disappoint our watchful eyes. 

* Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, Hartford, p. 263. 
t Rives' Life and Times of James Madison, I., 601-2. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 105 

What say great Wasliington and Lee ? 
"Our country is and must be free ! " 
What say great Henry, Pendleton, 
And Hberty's minutest son ? 
'Tis all one voice— they all agree, 
" God made us and we must be free !" 
Freedom we crave with every breath, 
An equal freedom or a death. 

The heavenly blessing freely give. 
Or make an act we shall not live. 
Tax all things ; water, air and light, 
If need there be ; yea, tax the night, 
But let our brave heroic minds 
Move freely as celestial winds. 

Make vice and folly feel your rod, 
But leave our consciences to God : 
Leave each man free to choose liis form 
Of piety, nor at him storm. 

And he who minds the civil law, 
And keeps it whole without a flaw, 
Let him just as he pleases, pray, 
And seek for heaven in his own way ; 
And if he miss, we all must own, 
No man is wronged but he alone.* 

After expending every effort the friends of 
the assessment were defeated, and it was finally 
rejected in 1785, and all the laws punishing 

* Howe's Virginia Historical Collections, p. 381, Charles- 
ton, 1846. 



106 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

opinions repealed. This was a work of great 
magnitude. The EjDiscopalians, the Method- 
ists, the Presbj^terian clergy and the eloquence 
and influence of some of the greatest men the 
United States ever had or will have, were over- 
come by the Baptists, and Jefferson and Madi- 
son, their two noble allies, and some Presbyte- 
rian and other laymen. Semple truly says : 
'' The inhibition of the general assessment may, 
in a considerable degree, be ascribed to the oppo- 
sition made to it by the Baptists. They were 
the only sect which plainly remonstrated against 
it. Of some others it is said that the laity and 
ministry were at variance upon the subject so 
as to paralyze their exertions for or against the 
bill."^^ 

Nor need any one dream that Jefferson and 
Madison could have carried this measure by their 
genius and influence. They were opposed by 
many men whose transcendent services, or 
unequalled oratory, or wealth, position, finan- 
cial interests, or intense prejudices would have 
enabled them easily to resist their unsupported 
assaults. Like a couple of first-class engineers 

*Semple's History of the Virginia Baptists, p. 72-3. 



AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 107 

on a "tender/' with a train attached but no 
locomotive, Avould Jefferson and Madison have 
appeared without the Baptists. They furnished 
the locomotive for these skilful engineers which 
drew the train of religious liberty through every 
persecuting enactment in the penal code of Vir- 
ginia. 

In 1790, just one year after the adoption of 
the amendment, Dr. Samuel Jones, of Penn- 
sylvania, states that there were 202 Baptist 
churches in that State.=-*- Semple, the historian 
of the Virginia Baptists, says, that, in 1792, 
" The Baptists had members of great weight in 
civil society ; their congregations became more 
numerous than those of any other Christian 
sect."f The Baptists outnumbered all the de- 
nominations in Virginia, in all probability, in 
1789, and they far surpassed them in the burn- 
ing enthusiasm which persecution engenders; 
and to them chiefly was Virginia indebted for 
her complete deliverance from persecuting en- 
actments. 

In 1789, a few months after Washington be- 



^ Minutes of Philadelphia Baptist Association, p. 459. 
t History of the Virginia Baptists, p. 39. 
10 



108 THE BAPTISTS AND THE 

came President^ " The Committee of the United 
Baptist Churches of Virginia" presented him an 
address written by John Leland, marked by 
felicity of expression and great admiration for 
Washington, in which they informed him that 
their religious rights were not protected by 
the new Constitution. The President replied 
that he would never have signed that instru- 
ment had he supposed that it endangered the 
religious liberty of any denomination, and if he 
could imagine even now that the government 
could be so administered as to render freedom 
of worship insecure for any religious society, he 
would immediately take steps to erect barriers 
against the horrors of spiritual tyranny.* Large 
numbers were anxious about the new Constitu- 
tion, and it had many open enemies. The Bap- 
tists who presented this address controlled the 
government of Virginia, and they were the 
warmest friends of liberty in America. They 
will suffer anything for their principles, and as 
they suspect the new Constitution, it must be 
amended to embrace their soul liberty, and 

* Writings of George Washington, by Sparks, XII., 154-5, 
Boston. 



TOO 

AMERICAN REVOLUTION. !"•' 

secure their hearty support. A few weeks later 
;:is Madison, the special friend of Washing- 
ton who aided him five months before in com- 
posing his first inaugural address to Congress, 
rises in the House of Representatives and pro- 
poses the religious amendment demanded by 
the Baptists, with other emendations, and de- 
clares Lt " a great number of their cons - 

ents were dissatisfied with the Constitution, 
In! whom were many respectable for their 

Ints and their patriotism, and respec able for 
the jealousy which they feel for their libertie . 
n,.,ilies to his Baptist constitu- 

^ and Congress passes It. Tv^othIras_ , ,.,rt of 

^,.a r.f it and it IS a part oi 
Legislatures approve ot it, anu 

the Constitution."!- 

Denominationally, no communi^ asked or 
this change in the Constitution but the Bap- 
SL.Th: Quakers would pi^bablyliave pel 

i tioned for ifif they had thought of it, bu they 

^ did not. John Adam^^in^tii^<>^^^^ 

--^^r^^^Zt^^^e. of James Madison, III., 64. 
t Ibid., HI., 39. 




110 



INDI'^PENDENCE HALL IN 1876. 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. HI 

ists did not desire it, the Episcopalians did not 
wish for it, it went too far for most Presbyte- 
rians in Revolutionary times, or in our own 
days when we hear so much about putting the 
Divine name in the Constitution. The Bap- 
tists asked it through Washington; the request 
commended itself to his judgment and to the 
generous soul of Madison, and to the Baptists, 
beyond a doubt, belongs the glory of engrafting 
its best article on the noblest Constitution ever 
framed for the government of mankind. 

Conclusion. 
The Baptists, through WiUiam Carey, have 
given modern missions to the Christian nations. 
Through Roger Williams the Baptists founded 
the first State on earth where absolute liberty 
of conscience was established. Through a letter 
issued by the Rev. Joseph Hughes, a Baptist 
minister, advocating the establishment of a 
society to circulate Bibles, a meeting was held 
in London, May 4th, 1804, at which the British 
and Foreign Bible Society was founded, and 
through it, indirectly, every Bible society on 
earth.* Through the^^lev^^John^^^ai^^ 

^^^^y's History of the English Baptists, IL, 93. 




112 



THE AMERICAN REYOLUTIOISr. H 



o 



twenty-one years of toil, marginal references 
were first placed in the English Bible,* and 
Canne was a Baptist minister. And, as a people, 
we took a leading part in secnring and perfect- 
ing American freedom. Our liberty is now 
shaking all the nations of the earth. It has 
blessed every section of the mother country, 
rapidly falling into despotism one hundred years 
ago. It has torn down the old throne of the 
B^ourbons in France and all the tyrannies that 
succeeded it. It has banished the petty oppres- 
sors that cursed Italy for centuries, and restored 
some measure of her ancient liberty to the for- 
mer mistress of the nations. It has bestowed 
some gifts upon Austria and Germany. It has 
tried many times to bless the land that gave 
birth to St. Dominic, Torquemada and Ignatius 
Loyola. It has reached far distant Japan, and 
already it is breathing freedom upon its inge- 
nious people. And it will march onward in its 
career of victory until it breaks the sceptre of 
the last despot, and the chains of the last victim 
of royal caprice on the face of the earth. 

In unbinding the chains of American liberty, 

* NeaFs History of tlie runtaiis, Dublin, 1755, II., 50. 



114 BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION". 

and in sending her forth to bless our country 
and exalt all nations, the Baptists occupied a 
place conspicuous for its toils and its triumphs. 
Long before 1776 they had all the seeds of 
American Independence. They were the seed- 
bearers of the Revolution, who scattered the seed 
in every direction -and cultivated it under a 
burning sun. Jefferson was the statesman of 
the Revolution, Franklin was its sage, Patrick 
Henry was its tongue of fire, Washington was its 
sword, Hancock, Hamilton, Adams, Madison, 
Richard Henry Lee and Jonathan Trumbull 
were its apostles, and the American people of 
all creeds and classes were its warriors. May 
the temple of our country's liberties, reared by 
the hands of heroes, cemented by the blood of 
the nation's noblest sons, survive the decay of 
ages, hurl back the assailing forces of corruption, 
and continue the admiration of the nations until 
the recording angel ceases to watch the events 
of time. 

Our country is a miracle of progress unmatched 
in the annals of mankind, and its greatness is 
the fruit of Independence. And as every grace 
in man come-s from God, and all his temporal 




115 ^ 



116 BAPTISTS AND THE REVOLUTION. 

blessings, we will unite with holy John, and 
say : " Unto Him that loved us and washed us 
from our sins in his own blood, and hath made 
us kings and priests unto God and his Father, 
unto him be glory and dominion for ever and 
ever. Amen." 



THE END. 



WOEKS QUOTED 



IN 



BAPTISTS AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



History of England, by Hume, Smollett, and Farr. 
Robert Hall's Works. 

Backus' History of the Baptists. Newton. 
Grimshaw's History of the United States. 
Cramp's History of the Baptists. 
Ilowison's History of Virginia. 
Campbell's History of Virginia 
Leland's Works. 

Howe's Virginia Historical Collections. 
Semple's History of Virginia Baptists. 
Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society. 
]5ancroft's History of the United States. 
Biography of The Signers of The Declaration of Independ- 
ence. 
Arnold's History of Rhode Island. 
Sabine's American Loyalists. 
Minutes of the Philadelphia Baptist Association. 
Neal's History of the Puritans. 
^^;lcaulay'a History of England. 
Ivimey's History of the English Baptists. 

117 



118 WORKS QUOTED. 

Headley's Chaplains and Clergy of the Ee volution. 
Bede's Ecclesiastical History. 
Sprague's Annals of the American Baptist Pulpit. 
Manning and Brown University. 
History of Independence Hall, by Belisle. 
Historical Collections of ]S'ew Jersey. 
Mulford's History of New Jersey. 

The Book of The Signers of The Declaration of Independ- 
ence, by Brotherhead. 
Brotherhead's Edition of Sanderson's Signers, etc. 
Life of Dr. Cone. 
Life of Lord Sterhng. 
Life and Works of John Adams. 
Jefferson's Complete Works. 
Writings of George Wasliington, by Sparks. 
Backus' Church History, Philadelphia. 
Curwen's Journal and Letters. 
Hildreth's History of the United States. 
Benedict's History of the Baptists. 
Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry. 
Rives' Life and Times of James Madison. 



THE PAPAL SYSTEM, 

BY 
AVILLIAM CATHCART, D.D., 

Pliiladelx^liia. 

This work contains sketches of the orighi and growth of every 
Romish belief, claim, institution, usurpation, and observance; and 
also of all great councils, ancient and modern. It gives all impor- 
tant canons, bulls, and testimonies in the original words and in trans- 
lations. 

The History of the Ancient Church and the Leading 
Facts of Modern Christianity are Largely Presented in 
this Work. 

Authorities given for all statements. 

Philadelphia : 

G. S. FERGUSON, 714 SANSOM ST. 

■^ Prom the Philad>l})hia Age. 
"This book is not virulent or gross, but in a calm and dignified tone argues the 
great points of difference that sever the Christian world into Catholics and Protes- 
tants. It is a calm and learned appeal to authority upon questions that demand 
research and scholarship for their elucidation. These qualities the author possesses." 

From the Philadelphia Christian Instructor (^United Presbyterian). 
" It is emphatically a book for the times. It ought to be widely read in this 
country. Ministers would do well to procure it, as it w ill afford them a vast amount 
of the material they need in discussing popery. It is written in the best spint.'' 

Prom the Philadelphia Methodist Home Jotirnal. 
"The latest, and we have no hesitation in saying, the most calm, comprehensive, 
and unprejudiced work on the subject. A reliable and exhaustive exposition of the 
whole subject. We particularly recommend the circulation of this work as the best 
of the kind lor scholarly style and public enlightenment.'" 

From the Philadelphia North American, 
" It is a work to receive the utmost censure of Catholics, and a very high commen- 
dation from Protestants; and it is cool, argumentative, and replete with authorities 
for every statement." 

From the Philadelphia Evening Tclograph. 
■"The author has thrown a bondwhdl of the hugest dimensions into the Roman 
Catholic camp." 




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